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| From | "Jaimie Vernon" <bullseyecanada@hotmail.com> |
| Subject | Beatles in Vegas |
| Date | Tue, 06 Jun 2006 13:07:14 -0400 |
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Track List: The Beatles in Vegas
An insider's peek, track-by-track, in advance of the historic
Cirque du Soleil show
ONLINE EXCLUSIVE
''I thought perhaps we should have a contest to see who could spot
everything we used,'' says George Martin. ''No one would ever get them
all.'' Martin is talking about the soundtrack -- made up entirely of
music by the Beatles -- for the new Cirque du Soleil show, Love,
opening at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas on June 30th.
The show marks the first time that the Beatles have authorized their
recordings for a theatrical production. When given the assignment,
Martin, with help from his son Giles, set out to assemble the ultimate
Beates mixtape, using ''a tremendous number of snippets, from hundreds
of songs'' to create 27 new pieces of music, all mixed for a
supercharged surround sound.
''It's going to be great,'' said Ringo Starr in an interview last
year. ''He's George, and he knows us, he knows where the music is, he
knows where the bodies are on the tapes.''
In early May, eight weeks before the show's opening, Giles Martin gave
Rolling Stone an exclusive listen to the complete score of Love. Here
are his comments on each of the tracks:
Overture: ''BECAUSE'' -- just the vocal track, with bird effects.
''This plays with the lights still up, to get the audience into the
mood.''
Then the lights come down to the sound of the ''endless piano chord''
from ''A Day in Life'' played backwards, the opening chord from ''A
Hard Day's Night,'' the Abbey Road drum solo, all over audience
screams recorded at Shea Stadium, leading into
Track 1: ''GET BACK'' -- ending with strings from ''Glass Onion,''
with ''Hello Goodbye'' mixed in
''We wanted to start with the Abbey Road drum solo because it's
bombastic and the Beatles are so often not thought of as a rock band.
So we went and did a big rock opening -- it was great to create a sort
of live Beatles experience.''
Track 2: ''ELEANOR RIGBY'' -- with a newly structured string intro
''All the songs are the same, not changed. You don't think about
anything but what will be right for the Beatles -- my dad has the
ability to say, 'if we were doing this then, this is how we would do it.'
Fades into the guitar from ''Julia,'' a piece of ''Strawberry Fields
Forever,'' the strings from ''A Day in the Life''
Track 3: ''I AM THE WALRUS''
''People ask about unreleased material -- the fact is, pretty much all
of it has been released, and what hasn't, you go, 'ooh, do we really
want to put that out?' ''
Track 4: ''I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND''
Track 5: ''CAN'T BUY ME LOVE''
Track 6: ''A HARD DAY'S NIGHT''
''The challenge of the early stuff is that it was all 2 track or 4 --
and on the 4-track recordings, they wouldn't always even use all 4. So
we took the Hollywood Bowl recordings and decided to experiment with
those. We matched the studio versions to the live recordings and they
were actually all in the same key.
''The production on stage is like 'West Side Story' on speed. We used
shorter versions here, but it'll be the full songs on the album.''
The introduction from ''Sun King,'' played backwards, leads into
Track 7: ''SOMETHING''
''Some of them really needed to be left alone. The idea was to get
that experience that I got when I heard the tapes, to just hear them
playing.''
Track 8: ''BEING FOR THE BENEFIT OF MR. KITE'' with laughter and
screaming from various sessions, accordion from ''Cry Baby Cry,'' lots
of "pissing around'' that was on the masters
Also ''Good Morning Good Morning'' sound effects, laughter from
''Piggies,'' noises from ''I Want You (She's So Heavy)'' and ''Helter
Skelter''
''We wanted a dark circus, something that would evoke the troubles
they had in the Deep South, and in the Philippines, on tour. The
stopping of the Beatles as the Fab Four, touring band. We did it not
for indulgence's sake, but because it suits the show -- 'Kite' should
be darker. It's quite heavy for Vegas, and we had to fight for that.
The Beatles weren't soft, and the last thing we wanted was 'The
Beatles-play-Vegas,' something that was just not cool at all.''
Track 9: ''HELP''
''We found out they rushed the mix, did it somewhere that wasn't Abbey
Road. We needed to get out of mono, since we're all out of a mono world.''
Track 10: ''YESTERDAY'' ends with ''Blackbird'' intro into
Track 11: ''GIRL'' with a drone from ''Lucy in the Sky with
Diamonds,'' a drum roll from ''Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite''
under the chorus, and a guitar figure from ''And I Love Her''
Track 12: ''SHE'S LEAVING HOME''
''These all kind of go together. Paul was kind of ambivalent about
using 'Yesterday,' but Dad wanted it in the show, he thought people
would be disappointed if it wasn't there.''
''The starting point was to not do the '1' record. We're not doing
badly getting obscure songs in. We wanted more a portrayal of their
innovation than of their success.''
Track 13: ''STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER'' crescendo at end includes
''Penny Lane,'' ''In My Life,'' ''Piggies,'' ''Hello Goodbye'' all
weaving in and out over track
''We spent more time on this than anything else in the show. Dominic
(Champagne, the show's director) wanted something to show the creative
process on stage. We found as many versions as possible, starting from
his first recording at home -- Yoko had the tapes. We spent all this
time finding versions and matching the keys -- with one take coming
under another, all overlapping, always more than one going at all time.
''We were under pressure from people to change things, to make things
different. Ringo loved this -- he loves anything where I have his
drums up. Paul said, 'I'm pleased, you've been so sensitive to what
the Beatles are about.' It's the best job in the world to have license
to play around with all these masters.''
Track 14: ''WITHIN YOU WITHOUT YOU'' over the drums from ''Tomorrow
Never Knows''
''This was the first thing we did. We played it for them, and they
said 'we want more like that!' We had to remind them, 'Fellas, you
know that on most songs you did actually change chords!'
George Martin: '' 'Within You' is not the most memorable song, but
it's much more interesting with that rhythm.''
Track 15: ''LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS''
For the introduction, the organ is ''chopped up to one note at a time,
moved up an octave''
Later, horns from ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band''
''The intros are important, setting the mood is important -- the one
thing that people don't want is to just feel like we're playing a CD.''
Track 16: ''OCTOPUS'S GARDEN'' starts with the strings from ''Good
Night,'' sung over the drums from ''Lovely Rita,'' break from
''Polythene Pam'' in middle
''Ringo would ask every time, what have you done for 'Octopus?'
Because these are the Beatles, they want to be crazy. Ringo said,
'Don't mess about -- if you're going to do it, really do it.' So we
wanted to take the weird stuff he did and use it as it was meant to be
used. The truth is, eighty percent of the people won't even notice.
And hopefully the fans won't be too cross with me for the heresy.''
Track 17: ''LADY MADONNA''
Percussion break in the middle from ''Hey Bulldog,'' Eric Clapton's
guitar solo from ''While Guitar Gently Weeps''
Track 18: ''HERE COMES THE SUN''
Vocals from ''Oh Darling,'' tabla from ''Within You Without You,''
bass from ''I Want You (She's So Heavy)''
Track 19: ''COME TOGETHER''
''There really was nothing you could do here. Paul and Ringo listened
to this, and they both said, 'We were really good. We remember that
day, that session, and how good we were.' ''
Track 20: ''REVOLUTION''
Track 21: ''BACK IN THE U.S.S.R.''
Track 22: ''WHILE MY GUITAR GENTLY WEEPS''
George Martin: ''Dominic liked the simplicity of the solo, acoustic
version -- that was almost a demo, it was in a different key. But
Olivia (Harrison) was uncomfortable using it like that, she thought it
was too small and unfinished.
''So they asked me to write a special score. It was a bit petrifying,
actually -- Olivia came to the session and it went very well, she
loved it. It's pretty significant -- it's the very last score ever to
be written for a Beatles song.''
Giles: ''That's the only added music in the show, that new string
arrangement by my dad. During the session, there was no emotion at
all; it's only after that you think, what a day!''
''You can't work with your hands tied by duty and responsibility,
because you'll be too safe, or you'll just do the wrong thing.''
Track 23:''A DAY IN THE LIFE''
''Again, what can you do with something like this? We found four
different versions of the strings. But with something like this, the
more we separated the tracks, the worse it became, the less impact it
had.''
Track 24: ''HEY JUDE''
''We isolated a bass part that comes late in the song, moved that up
and brought it out.''
Track 25: ''SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND''
CLOSING: ''ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE''
Jaimie Vernon,
President, Bullseye Records
"Not Infecting Our Customers' Computers Since 1985!!"
http://www.bullseyecanada.com
http://www.bullseyerecords.com
Author, Canadian Pop Music Encyclopedia
http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/Pop_Encyclopedia/
http://www.myspace.com/jaimievernonsmovingtargetz
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