The Beatles Love - Nothing Is Real
by Dave Haber, What Goes On Editor
The Beatles predicted it when they ventured into Pepperland in 1968, and now it has come true. Nothing Is Real, and you'll never hear the Beatles the same again.
Four tracks from the new Beatles Love album, songs from the soundtrack of the Beatles Love show in Las Vegas, are now available to hear at the official Beatles web site, beatles.com, and they're guaranteed to raise a smile.
Strawberry Fields, the first track in the preview, starts off with John Lennon's early voice and guitar demo for the song (with a John count-in I've never heard before). At the first chorus, it transitions to the beautiful and haunting Strawberry Fields studio take one, but to my ears the vocal continues to be the earlier demo, and it's wonderful to hear take one of the song married to this different vocal. As the song transitions to the more raucous take 2, the demo vocal continues throughout. As the songs gets into the loud rhythmic drumming section, it seamlessly transitions into many different tracks. The song has now become a Beatles trivia guessing game, which will delight Beatles fans for many years. How many songs can you name at the end of this track? I'll start:
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Penny Lane
Piggies
Hello, Goodbye
There's got to be others in there, but alas, the online demo is mono. Just wait until we get to hear the CD and we can more easily pick out the sounds! Fans who are used to the bootleg versions of this song will delight how it comes to an abrupt ending, just the way it did when they recorded it in the studio.
The others of the four tracks are similar, the demo includes wonderful remixes of Octopus's Garden (with a Yellow Submarine Flavor) and Lady Madonna, which makes you feel like you're in the room with Paul as he's singing it.
But they saved the best for last. The final track in the online demo is a such a beautiful version of George Harrison's While My Guitar Gently Weeps that it might actually make Beatles fans weep. It is George's early voice and guitar demo of the song, with the two unreleased verses, except that it now has a beautiful and unmistakably George Martin string track added. My pal Darren DeVivo over at WFUV (90.7FM NYC, www.wfuv.org) tells me this
new string track was the only bit recorded anew for this project, everything else on the new album is the Beatles. This new mix with the strings is stunning, and I guarantee, it will become your favorite version of the song.
Going by these first four tracks, it is my professional opinion that Beatles fans are going to be blown away by the new album, which becomes available in stores in just two weeks, on November 21.
More information:
• Preview the tracks
• Preorder Beatles Love
Published November 6, 2006
This article is Copyright © 2006, The Author, and may not be reproduced on other web sites or in print, in whole or in part, without expressed permission
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