Saturday, September 13, 2014

NOT QUITE AS FAB FOUR

Do young people listen to the Beatles anymore? Hell, for people my age they're so ingrained that it's hard to imagine even younger kids not knowing who they are, or their impact on music. I don't know, maybe they think of Nirvana in the same sort of way, who knows? Today I saw a kid about fifteen with a shaved head and Docs, trying to look his toughest in a Black Flag T-shirt. That's teddy boy shit right there, not in a musical way but in a "it's not over until I say it's over" sort of way. At least that kid showed some sort of consistency in style and attitude. I doubt seriously if he would have felt as dangerous if he was wearing a Knack T-shirt.

Where was I? Oh yeah, the Beatles. Just goofing off, today I ran into "Have You Heard the Word" by the Fut. That was a record that was rumored to have been the Beatles, enough so that it ended up on Beatles bootlegs, and apparently had Yoko so fooled she tried to copyright it after John Lennon's death. (You can read the the whole story about it over at Bedazzled.). That got me thinking about other Beatles sound alikes. The only one that came to mind was Klaatu, There was a big fuss when that one came out. At the time no one wanted to believe that the Beatles were kaput, so freaks tried to wring clues out of it. I'm sure there are tons of other recordings from back then that were rumored to be the Beatles, but I couldn't think of any. All I could siphon was a couple that were obvious nods to the Beatles without trying to fool anyone. So there's one from the Rutles, a chuckle worthy parody, and one from the Red Walls, who evidently couldn't come up with a sound all their own. It's all good. The Beatles aren't sacred or anything. I mean, it's not like they're Nirvana.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Listen:
The Fut - Have You Heard the Word? mp3 at Bedazzled Go there to get it, right click on the song title.
Klaatu - Sub Rosa Subway mp3 at Kempa
The Rutles - Joe Public mp3 at Beware of the Blog Very cool
The Red Walls - Thank You mp3 at DServer "If you don't belong, scram!"

2 comments:

Timmy said...

I've had that "Word" song on an old Beatles Boot since it came out, around '69 or '70 & never heard all this WOW! Thanx for clearing up my mind. The Red Walls sounds more like Mott The Hoople or Bowie, than The Fab 4.
What about the first Beatles sound-alike song; "Lies" by The Knickebockers?

Tom G. said...

Yeah, "Lies" is a good one too.

I see where you're coming from with that Bowie/Mott thing, but it still reminds me more of the Beatles. Admittedly, that's an impression from hearing the whole album, shit, about ten or fifteen years ago.