The Beatles, "Musicologically": New York Times, Feb. 10, 1964

Musicologically ...

By Theodore Strongin

(Originally published in The New York Times, February 10, 1964)

"You can tell right away it's the Beatles and not anyone else," is the opinion of a 15-year-old specialist on the subject who saw the Beatles on the "Ed Sullivan Show" last night.  The age of 15 (or 16 or 14 or 13) is essential in a Beatles expert.

Taking the above axiom as gospel, this listener made an attempt to find out just what is musically unique about the British visitors.

The Beatles are directly in the mainstream of Western tradition; that much may be immediately ascertained.  Their harmony is unmistakeably diatonic.  A learned British colleague, writing on his home ground, has described it as pandiatonic, but I disagree.

The Beatles have a tendency to build phrases around unresolved leading tones.  This precipitates the ear into a false modal frame that temporarily turns the fifth of the scale into the tonic, momentarily suggesting the Mixylydian mode.  But everything always ends as plain diatonic all the same.

Meanwhile, the result is the addition of a very, very slight touch of British countryside notalgia, with a trace of Vaughan Williams, to the familiar elements of the rock 'n' roll prototype.  "It's just that English rock 'n' roll is more sophisticated," explained the 15-year-old authority.

As to instrumentation, three of the four Beatles (George Harrison, Paul McCartney and John Lennon) play different sizes of electronically amplified plucked-string instruments.  Ringo Starr ("He's just like a little puppy, he's so cute," said our specialist) plays the drums.  The Beatles's vocal quality can be described as hoarsely incoherent, with the minimal enunciation necessary to communicate the schematic texts.

Two theories were offered in at least one household to explain the Beatles's popularity.  The specialist said: "We haven't had an idol in a few years.  The Beatles are different, and we have to get rid of our excess energy somehow."

The other theory is that the longer parents object with such high dudgeon, the longer children will squeal so hysterically.

Martin Scorsese, George Harrison, and Cannes

CANNES -- Martin Scorsese swept into the Cap d'Antibes Beach Hotel down the coast from Cannes on Saturday afternoon with George Harrison's widow, Olivia. The two have been collaborating on a documentary about the famous songwriter for the past three years and are finally nearing the end of a long and winding road.

Titled "Living in the Material World: George Harrison," the documentary will take on the whole of the Beatles guitarist's life before, during and after his time in the world's most popular and successful band. Producer Nigel Sinclair of Exclusive Media Group, home of the Spitfire Pictures label that will release the doc, was also on hand to provide background and perspective on the forthcoming project.

Read the whole story here.

You Don't Really Want to Miss the Show!

Paul McCartney In Performance At The White House

Three things you need to know:

1) Paul is being given the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize on 28 July (that's British for "July 28th")

2) He will be performing at the event

3) It will air on PBS at 8:00pm, Eastern Time.

If this doesn't put an end to the "Paul is Dead" rumors, then quite frankly, I'll be happy (hey, I have a huge "Macca Memorial Mementos" business that would go belly-up if people ever figured out that he isn't dead).

Then There Was Music - Macca Gets Re-Mastered

I am so excited over this bit of news, I might throw up. Sir Paul McCartney VII, Jr., Ph.D., Esq., LLPC, has formed a business partnership with Concord Music Group.

Yeah, so what, big deal, right? Another business deal, another day, words like "distribution," "global," "conglomerate," blah-blah-blah.

Except, with the new partnership comes a re-issuing of Macca's post-Beatles album portfolio.

Ok, now that's worth a spontaneous excitement-induced vomit. Here's a snippet from the press release:

"McCartney fans can look forward to an ambitious and rewarding reissue program beginning in August of 2010 with Band On The Run; Paul McCartney & Wings' classic #1 album from 1973 that spawned the immortal title song as well as the smash hit "Jet". It will be available in a variety of configurations, including a special collector's multi-disc edition with remastered audio, enhanced packaging and rare bonus content."

They said the magic words: "remastered audio." After experiencing the sublime wonderfulness that was the remastered Beatles catalog, I can only hope that we're about to be treated to the same sparkle and shine show with Macca's catalog.

Read the full press release here.