{"id":7539,"date":"2015-04-02T05:30:44","date_gmt":"2015-04-02T09:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=7539"},"modified":"2015-04-02T05:30:44","modified_gmt":"2015-04-02T09:30:44","slug":"beatles-vs-rolling-stones-another-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2015\/04\/02\/beatles-vs-rolling-stones-another-round\/","title":{"rendered":"Beatles vs. Rolling Stones: Another Round"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/tribute_beatles.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"280\" hspace=\"20\" vspace=\"20\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Back when I was a kid, the <strong>Beatles<\/strong>-or-<strong>Stones<\/strong> question was a real thing: among my childhood peers, one had to pick a side. That one could like both groups was, it seems, not a concept around which we could wrap our minds.<\/p>\n<p>These days I&#8217;m much older and slightly wiser, and I enjoy both (Beatles still win by a long shot if I must pick). The folks at Cleopatra Records agree, as do the roster of acts whom they&#8217;ve employed to help create a pair of tribute albums (the label&#8217;s specialty). <em>Magical Mystery Psych-out: A Tribute to The Beatles<\/em> and <em>Stoned: A Psych Tribute to The Rollings Stones<\/em> bring together a cross-section of modern psych (and\/or psych influenced) bands.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"float: right; padding: 10px; width: 120px; height: 240px;\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;OneJS=1&amp;Operation=GetAdHtml&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;source=ss&amp;ref=ss_til&amp;ad_type=product_link&amp;tracking_id=musoscribe-20&amp;marketplace=amazon&amp;region=US&amp;placement=B00Q60USRS&amp;asins=B00Q60USRS&amp;show_border=true&amp;link_opens_in_new_window=true&amp;linkId=G4R7UZCY62NIAWEV\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Of the two, the Beatles tribute disc plays it safer track-wise. Most of the songs on that disc are covers of material The Beatles cut in the <em>Rubber Soul<\/em>, <em>Revolver<\/em> and White Album eras. And the one outlier \u2013 \u201cAnd I Love Her\u201d \u2013 is given a relatively straight, faithful reading by <strong>The Lucid Dream<\/strong>. They keep the jangling guitar largely intact, and give the tune an arrangement somewhat reminiscent of what <strong>Best Coast<\/strong> might do. (A note-for-note copy of <strong>George Harrison<\/strong>\u2019s guitar solo is a nice reminder that sometimes simplicity is the best approach. <strong>Electric Moon<\/strong>&#8216;s reading of \u201cTomorrow Never Knows\u201d sounds a lot like how one might expect <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=771\"><strong>The Brian Jonestown Massacre<\/strong><\/a> to cover it (though BJM&#8217;s vocals are better than the weedy vox on this version).<\/p>\n<p>While other psych tributes from Cleopatra enlisted the help of a few \u201cname\u201d acts (<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=3899\"><strong>Allah-Las<\/strong><\/a>, for example) <em>Magical Mystery Psych-out<\/em> features groups who will be familiar only to the hardest of hardcore modern-psych aficionados.<\/p>\n<p>A few of the featured bands on this set are clearly not intimidated by the massive popularity of The Beatles; maybe it&#8217;s because they&#8217;re young and have less reverence (which is a good thing in this case), but <strong>The Vacant Lots<\/strong>&#8216; \u201cJulia\u201d creates an arrangement that owes nearly nothing to the 1968 original. Kudos to them for thinking outside the box. The same can be said about <strong>The Ruby Sun<\/strong>&#8216;s cover of \u201cMartha My Dear,\u201d though in this case they win on originality but lose on musicality; the dirge-like pace of their arrangement might make some listeners grind their teeth. <strong>The Underground Youth<\/strong>&#8216;s trip-hop reinvention of \u201cCome Together\u201d is a curio if nothing else. <strong>Kikagaku<\/strong>&#8216;s \u201cHelter Skelter\u201d is a eardrum-splitting, punishing noisefest that makes the original sound like ear candy. And <strong>Strangers Family Band<\/strong>&#8216;s \u201cSun Kings\u201d is evocative of nothing so much as the still unattributed not-Beatles bootleg outtake, \u201cCandle Burns.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/tribute_stones.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"280\" hspace=\"20\" vspace=\"20\" \/><\/p>\n<p>At least musicwise, The Rolling Stones&#8217; psychedelic period lasted for all of one album, <em>Their Satanic Majesties Request<\/em>. But on the psych tribute to the band, tunes from all through the Stones&#8217; catalog are given the treatment. A highlight of the set is <strong>The KVB<\/strong>&#8216;s cover of \u201cSympathy for the Devil.\u201d Instead of building an arrangement around a familiar riff, they strip the tune down to its basic parts, rebuilding it in a hazy, gaudy manner that recalls <strong>The Psychedleic Furs<\/strong> or any number of 90s shoegaze bands. Well done.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"float: left; padding: 10px; width: 120px; height: 240px;\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;OneJS=1&amp;Operation=GetAdHtml&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;source=ss&amp;ref=ss_til&amp;ad_type=product_link&amp;tracking_id=musoscribe-20&amp;marketplace=amazon&amp;region=US&amp;placement=B00QIYNFRC&amp;asins=B00QIYNFRC&amp;show_border=true&amp;link_opens_in_new_window=true&amp;linkId=YERDDWKFFQJGNVZL\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Shiny Darkly<\/strong>&#8216;s \u201cUnder My Thumb\u201d is close to the original (if the original was recorded in an airplane hangar with squalls of echo and feedback). <strong>Yeti Lane<\/strong>&#8216;s \u201cSway\u201d is appealing in a zonked-out way. <strong>Clinic<\/strong>&#8216;s drum-machine-led reading of \u201cIt&#8217;s Only Rock &amp; Roll (But I Like It)\u201d sounds like <strong>Trio<\/strong> (\u201cDa Da Da\u201d), and doesn&#8217;t really work, but like some of the acts mentioned on the Beatles tribute, they score for originality if nothing else.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sons of Hippie<\/strong>s play it straight on \u201cGimme Shelter,\u201d which raises an interesting question: on a tribute album, is it better to copy the original or reinvent it? Their reading of the classic Stones tune is just about the best thing on the pair of albums.<\/p>\n<p>Surprisingly, <strong>The Allah-Las<\/strong>&#8216; version of \u201cStoned\u201d is perfunctory; the certainly can do better. <strong>Pink Velvet<\/strong>&#8216;s \u201c(I Can&#8217;t Get No) Satisfaction\u201d is a slavish copy of the original, albeit one with the lead vocal bumped up an octave. But <strong>Pure X<\/strong>&#8216;s reading of \u201cBeast of Burden\u201d is interesting and nicely textured, a sort of cross between indie rock and <strong>Martin Denny<\/strong>&#8216;s bachelor pad tropicalia.<\/p>\n<p>Like most albums of their ilk, this pair of releases aren&#8217;t likely to end up in most listeners&#8217; heavy rotation, but they&#8217;re both reasonably well done. Thanks to somewhat more adventurous song selection, in this Beatles-vs.-Stones round, the decision goes to The Rolling Stones.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/the_musoscribe\">Follow \u201cthe_musoscribe\u201d on <\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/the_musoscribe\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/icon_twitter_small.jpg\" alt=\"\" name=\"graphics3\" width=\"18\" height=\"18\" align=\"BOTTOM\" border=\"0\" hspace=\"1\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/the_musoscribe\"> Twitter<\/a> and get notified<br \/>\nwhen new features, reviews and essays are published.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Back when I was a kid, the Beatles-or-Stones question was a real thing: among my childhood peers, one had to pick a side. That one could like both groups was, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,49,57],"tags":[278,1879],"class_list":["post-7539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-compilation","category-new-release","category-psych","tag-beatles","tag-rolling-stones","cat-19-id","cat-49-id","cat-57-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7539\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}