At Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2004 16:55:29 Larry wrote:

>Just have to add that I believe this is true. Why do a facsimile when you 
>can make a song your own? To that extent, I welcome it when the artists 
>themselves monkey around with their oeuvre -- not so much extending a song 
>by noodling or jamming, but with rearrangements of old material to suit a 
>current slant in their own music, or simply as a change of pace.

My version of "Fixing A Hole" on the Beatles tribute was just such a 
project. My brother-in-law wanted to be involved and has his own recording 
studio. At the point in which he made this request we had received quite a 
few submissions so I had wanted to get a few more tunes from Sgt. Pepper 
because the pop community (especially in the circle of friends on this list) 
universally despise this record [let's not start THAT argument again!]. 
However, it made no sense to trot out yet another ho-hum version of "Lucy In 
The Sky" or "With A Little Help" so it seemed that songs like "Lovely Rita", 
"Getting Better" or "Fixing A Hole" would be ripe for re-interpretation.

I picked "Fixing A Hole". He wanted to know what kind of arrangement it 
should have. Knowing that he was a huge XTC fan I told him to re-imagine the 
thing as an Andy Partridge tome circa "Drums & Wires".

I think he did a magnificint job. Jef performed all the instruments except 
guitar (wich was Brian Gagnon) and I sang. A nifty little homage to XTC as a 
trio....and NOT the Beatles, as it were. And that's why the track is 
credited to.....HELIUM KIDS [you XTC fans will know what this means].


Jaimie Vernon,
President, Bullseye Records
http://www.bullseyecanada.com
Author, Canadian Pop Music Encyclopedia
http://www.canoe.ca/JamMusicPopEncycloPages