the beatles rockband game drops on september 9th, and from the look of the trailers it is gonna be nothing less than stunning...
and to think i wasted all those years learning their songs from the records. i just may have to ask for this for xmas, of course then i'll need that px-wee-360 thingy to play it on, right?
i dunno if santa can swing all that this year, but it really does look sweet... so for now i'll just have to resign myself to my guitar and the new remastered beatle records that are coming in the on same day for now.
here are a few trailers to get me all excited about september...
*** back by popular demand, in time for this xmas, is this repost of the 12-1-05 entry... (with corrections and additions)
...for seven years the beatles released an annual christmas record, on flexi-discs for members of the fan club. it began in 1963 as the four of them sat around a microphone in abbey road studios to record a thank you message, and by '66 they were making it a small epic, of sorts, using audio skits and new songs. for '68 and '69 the beatles weren't even doing it together at all, just piecemealing stuff they each recorded at home, then handing it over to kenny everett (the bbc dj) to edit for release. in december 1970, after the band broke up, apple records released all 7 christmas flexi-records on one vinyl l.p., again, only to the fan club.
for years all of this was really hard to find on any medium (i was lucky to have a friend whose sister belonged to the fan club and had them all, including the l.p., of which she would not part with but let me tape, so i at least it in some form, which was spread as far as i could). now the price for any of the original records is unreal, as you can imagine. but thanks to the wonders of the internet you can find these lil gems on torrent or other various places, (i found a nice cd of the set, along with the other christmas tunes done by each after the split, on ebay a while back, but i'd love to own the l.p. in vinyl before i die)...
***(well, i finally did get the lp right after the original post, the real apple fan club one... heheheheheeee, she treats me so good!)
...the beatles were always big on christmas. they would plan album and single releases for the holidays and even had a kinda off-broadway christmas show in the early years. and as mentioned in a previous post, it meant a guaranteed record under the tree on the morning of december 25th each year. i still miss those times, but at least we've still got the christmas records to fill the house with beatle-christmas cheer when it comes, at the end of every year ...
here are the very hard to find fan club flexi-disc records on mp3 download for you to put under the tree for that special santa-beatle on your list ...
***(these links are now thru yousendit, so that you can save 'em, since the site i was using/hacking flipped 'em to video streams on youtube... i may add links to those later for ya'll (or you can go here now and save me the trouble)... in the meantime, get 'em while they're available, for 100 downloads or the next week or so, or you can just listen to the audio stream to enjoy anytime at all as long as you like... so, garry crimble to all and getty babel dear christmas!
a new improved edition of the 1965 beatles' film 'help!' was just released on dvd, all cleaned up, in a nice, slick 2 disc package, sounding and looking much better than i do after all these years... what a godsend. we needed some new kinda beatle stuff, and i guess this'll hold us until they get around to releasing 'let it be' on dvd for the 1st time.
the first time i saw help! was when it came out in '65. we were living in niles, illinoise at the time, i was 9 and my mom drove us to the local cinema. i don't remember what i was thinking on the way in, but when we emerged, my life had changed. i recall having the most euphoric feeling, like i floated out of the picture show. i wanted to be a beatle so bad and i just couldn't get enough of the music, i wanted to make that music (and still do!). it seemed they always had so much fun making music and living life. it seemed like a good job to me.
for years it was ocassionaly shown on t.v., all chopped for commercials and time constraints. one time i caught it and made an audio tape for my friends and i to play endlessly while imagining the movie and memorizing the dialog. finally it came out on vhs, and later a limited release on dvd during the 90s. the dvd copies have been pretty rare and cost quite alot, well, they used to. but the earlier dvds of 'help!' were made from old prints of the film. they looked faded and washed out. still, it was all there was to be had... 'til now that is.
we watched the new version last night and were in complete awe at how vibrant and alive the movie is now. the color seems to jump off of the screen, as when they are all in their shared, multi-colored apartment, and the surround sound is full, crisp and lush. and even after seeing this movie at least a hundred times i was now picking out many things that had slipped by before. it just looked and sounded perfect on the big 42" and 5.1 .
the 2nd disc of the set contains the 30 min. 'the beatles in help!, (which has been bootlegged for many a moon), a look at how the movie was restored, (unbelievable!), and some other 'help!' stuff... but the film is the real star here. there is also a deluxe edition with a few goodies like the script, a poster and photo booklet to jack the price, (tho i would like to cop the poster), but it is all just dressing, it's the movie that everyone really needs.
a rarely seen version of 'help!' from some brit t.v. show...
and now, the complete beatles' set at shea stadium, august 15, 1965, again in mp3, from the original line recordings (with minimal crows noise)... this is the real deal, with the songs that were omitted from the t.v. special release in '66, 'she's a woman' and 'everybody's tryin' to be my baby':
