"The Beatles: Rock Band" brings vague reminders of the old
cartoon show. (Photo courtesy Harmonix/MTV Games.)
We had more information on the Fireman Deluxe box sets Saturday. We posted about the track lists on the bonus discs. One thing that's interesting about the box set is that you can remix certain tracks. You don't see artists allow that kind of creativity, at least in rock. The boundaries of rock are moving, certainly.
Speaking of new technology, this blog has a hands-on demonstration of "The Beatles: Rock Band".
This has been around for a couple of months, but this Chase bank commercial features "Instant Karma."
Chris Carter's top 10 of 40 best George Martin Beatles productions from this week's "Breakfast With the Beatles":
- 1. The Beatles – I Am The Walrus - Magical Mystery Tour
- 2. The Beatles - A Day In The Life – Sgt. Pepper
- 3. The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever – Magical Mystery Tour
- 4. The Beatles - She Loves You – Single
- 5. The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows – Revolver
- 6. The Beatles - Rain – Hey Jude/Beatles Again / Past Masters
- 7. The Beatles - All You Need Is Love - Single
- 8. The Beatles – I Want You (She’s So Heavy) -
Abbey Road (co-produced by Chris Thomas and Glyn Johns) - 9. The Beatles – A Hard Days Night – AHDN
- (tied with 9) The Beatles – Golden Slumbers -
Abbey Road - (tied with 9) The Beatles – Carry That Weight -
Abbey Road - 10. The Beatles – The End –
Abbey Road
In the wake of the stories this week about fake celebrity Twitter accounts for Phil Spector and Dhani Harrison, we're glad to see Twitter is instituting celebrity account verifications.
Speaking of fake things, someone emailed us and asked why we haven't made a big deal about the tabloid stories going around that Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Bob Dylan are supposedly going to be working together. We did discuss it after Dylan brought it up in Rolling Stone. Then tabloid reports came out that, first, McCartney and Dylan, then McCartney, Dylan and Ringo Starr would be working together. When the McCartney-Dylan tabloid story surfaced, we checked with Paul McCartney's press rep in the UK, who called it "speculation." Although this story has been picked up by a lot of internet sources and Beatle news sites that print everything they can find, legitimate sources, like Rolling Stone, haven't. That should tell you something. If it's too convenient to believe, it's usually not true.
Julian Lennon has come to the aid of the woman who inspired "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" and is now suffering from an incurable disease, reports Times Online and the UK Telegraph.
Someone else on our Facebook page took off on our comment that the cinematic trailer for "The Beatles: Rock Band" looks like "Yellow Submarine" and wondered why the game and not the cartoons. It would seem obvious that the cartoons are old news to the Beatles. But a note to the Beatles, Yoko and Olivia: Many old cartoons are issued on DVD these days as nostalgic items. Certainly the Beatles cartoons fall into that category. They would not detract from the Beatles legacy at all. As a matter of fact, they'd be a great reminder of the way things were.
And much as I, as a lover of old TV shows, hate the idea of remaking "Land of the Lost," we have to chuckle at this review by Jim Slotek that calls the new remake "the funniest dinosaur movie since Caveman." I think Ringo should be insulted.
Comments
While I agree that the Beatles cartoons should be released in a DVD box set, it might be a hard sell because of what could be perceived as negative stereotypes on some of the episodes that wouldn't be considered 'P.C.' today. Yoko might blanch of the way Japanese characters are portrayed in some of the cartoons.
What should be done that has been done with collections of Disney, Warners and Paramount cartoons is to place a disclaimer on the set that the cartoons are of an 'Historical' nature and should be view in that context. That way it's a win-win situation for both the fans and Apple.
FredV: Yeah, that PC thing probably has something to do with it. What might happen, given that consideration, is that they release part of the series. That wouldn't make fans happy, but it would get the cartoons back out into the public arena.
The PC aspect should not be much of a roadblock. The animated Dick Tracy with Jo Jitus and Go Go Gomez has been released, as well as many of the old Looney Tunes. All those companies do is put a disclaimer before the program. This was also accomplished when Warner Brothers released Jolson's Jazz Singer.
I have a bootleg set of the cartoons. It would be good to have them all in high quality, since the quality on some of them is really, really poor.
But FredV made the point before I could, though I would make it a lot more strongly an with less quibbling -- there is a LOT of stuff in those cartoons that is really, really racist. Seemingly close to half of the episodes deal with some sort of "exotic" "other" causing trouble for the Beatles. Asians are repeatedly stereotyped and caricatured beyond reproach, Latino people are also portrayed in a really racist manner, and the depictions of many indigenous cultures are pretty appalling. That would, of course, present a problem. They could indeed do a disclaimer of the "yeah, we totally realize that this is racist" variety. But the racist content does indeed make things more difficult.
As does the fact that most of the cartoons, racism aside, are just BAD :)
Er, sorry, not "beyond reproach"!!! I meant "in a way that is extraordinarily reproachable," actually :)
My toddler loves watching the Beatles cartoons (but really isn't into Yellow Submarine - go figure). I would love to have them on DVD so that I don't have to keep going to YouTube and dealing with sub-par audio/picture quality - now, the quality of the cartoons themselves, I know we can't help. But in their own special way, they're quaint and cool.
I agree with FredV - slap a disclaimer at the start of them, much like how Disney has treated smoking characters since the digital-erasing-of-Pecos-Bill's-cigarette fiasco.
Re boundaries of rock: Ben Folds did the same thing recently, providing a second mix-it-yourself version of the album WAY TO NORMAL.
Here's my proposal..Next phase of Beatles video game development should be a continuation of Yellow Submarine with new journeys and new characters..Hell they don't even need to use the original style art work..Make it more Pixart is style..Considering the fabs didn't do the voiceovers,,the possibilities are endless.The merchandising alone would be incredible and very profitable.They could even time travel and add some solo material content.Imagine "Free As A Bird" performed by the Beatles in CGI..Mmmm hmmm.
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