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It is the oldest Beatles discussion: “John vs. Paul!” Which one was more essential to The Beatles music? It’s my opinion as an enormous Beatles fan that the real answer is “both!” It may sound like a cop-out but I definitely believe it’s the best answer.

I’m definitely not one of those critics that goes out of his way to disparage the solo careers of Lennon and McCartney but I do think it’s clear that they never reached the same amazing level by themselves as they did together as The Beatles (of course who has?) I think that’s pretty good evidence that there was something magical about their songwriting partnership that allowed their work together to to reach a level that has rarely been reached by other songwriters.

Many of The Beatles greatest tunes were those that Lennon & McCartney wrote together. Most of their early singles such as “She Loves You” and “Love Me Do” were written together and some of their greatest songs such as “We Can Work It Out” consisted of different song segments that Paul & John wrote which were stuck together to form a whole song.

And even when a song was mostly written by one or the other such as in the cases of “Hey Jude” and “Dear Prudence” there was still some great input by the other one.

For example with McCartney’s songs like “Hey Jude” and “Getting Better” John would give Paul very helpful lyrical advice. John told Paul to keep a lyric in the song “Hey Jude” that Paul felt wasn’t clear enough. With “Getting Better” John added the “it couldn’t get much worse” bit which helped to add a bit of weight to the positive lyrics of the rest of the song.

Paul McCartney added some incredible bass guitar parts to John’s songs such as “Dear Prudence,” “Rain,” & “Come Together.” Try to imagine those songs without the bass, they wouldn’t be anywhere near as awesome!

The essential point that I’m trying to get across is that both Paul & John were necessary parts of what made The Beatles such an excellent band.

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In The 1960s Mono Mixes Were The Standard

It was not until the time of Abbey Road & Let It Be that the stereo mixes became The Beatles only. Up until that point, they were more focused on the mono mixes as they were the standard way people listened to music then.

The Original Beatles Albums

You can make a great case that these Beatles original mono mix CDs represent The Beatles albums in their true form. These are the mixes that most people heard back in the 1960s. These are the mixes that made them the biggest band of all time. Hearing these albums in their original stereo mixes, even if they are poor mixes, is interesting to real Beatles fans.

The Beatles Mono Box Set Includes

• Please Please Me through The White Album in mono.
• Help! & Rubber Soul in their original stereo mixes~The original stereo mixes of Rubber Soul & Help!}
• The Mono Masters {compilation of the mono mixes of the band’s non album songs~The mono mixes of all of the band’s singles that were mixed in mono}.

Where’s Their Final Three Albums?

The band’s last three studio albums were never mixed in mono because by then stereo was the standard.

Why Are Stereo Mixes For Two Albums Included?

The two albums included in stereo (Help! & Rubber Soul) were both released in 1965. At this time mixing in stereo was still a very new thing and these albums were mixed in what would now be considerd a very strange way. Because of that when the bands albums were first put on CD in the 1980s they didn’t use the 1960s stereo mixes and created new stereo mixes instead. The original stereo mixes for these 1965 classic albums have never been on CD until this new mono box set.

The White Album In Mono In The US For The First Time

One really cool thing about this box set is that it will actually be the first time that The White Album has ever been released in mono in the United States in any format. Why is that? {In 1968 mono was already done in the US so only the stereo mix was the only one released. In the UK both the mono & stereo mixes were released.}

Stereo & Mono Box Sets~The Beatles Remastered Album Box Sets~The Beatles Remastered CDs Box Sets~The Beatles Remastered Mono & Stereo Box Sets}

There are actually two Beatles box sets that were released on September 9, 2009. A mono box set & a stereo box set. Both are necessary purchases by~essential for} real Beatles fans.

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In 1976 Cliff Richard recorded the song “Devil Woman”. It was a big hit, reaching number nine on the UK charts. In the USA it made it as far as number six on the Billboard Hot 100. That was Richard’s biggest hit ever in the United States. Let’s learn more about this famous song.

A man named Terry Britten penned it.  He was English singer-songwriter who wrote songs for people like Tina Turner, Olivia Newton John, and even Michael Jackson.  He had some other hits such as “What’s Love Got to Do with It”.  When Cliff performed Devil Woman Terry played guitar.  They recorded it at Abbey Road, a studio made famous by the Beatles.

The Devil Woman song tells a story. A man seems to be cursed after meeting a strange stray cat with evil eyes. He becomes concerned and eventually seeks the help of a medium, a gypsy woman, to remove the curse. But he’s stunned when he learns that the curse didn’t come from the cat. It was the gypsy woman placed a curse on him to lure him into her clutches.

Songs like Devil Woman aren’t very common.  They aren’t complex.  The tune is simple and not many instruments are used.  One of these simple songs is Devil Woman.  The instruments used to record the song include a guitar, an electric piano, drums and percussion.  Oh, and there was a singer.

The combination of major and minor chords in Devil Woman aren’t usual for pop songs.  In US pop songs, it was one of the first to encompass more than an octave.

Devil Woman has been covered by others.  One of these is the Accused.  It’s a Washington band founded in 1981.  Their music is splatter rock.  Their music includes sounds from well known horror movies.  This often includes lyrics sung as shrieks.

In 2005 Cradle of Faith covered Devil Woman. This was an extreme metal band from England. Their songs were in the style of the band had said any kind of metal. Given their reputation and style of music this song was perfect for them.

No matter who plays it, Devil Woman is a devilish song.

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The Devil Went Down to Georgia is a popular song released in 1979 by the Charlie Daniels Band. It’s remained popular for nearly 30 years, and there’s no sign that people will ever grow tired of singing it.

The song’s roots are in a melody called “Lonesome Fiddle Blues.” Charlie took the song, raised it an octave, and set lyrics to it. The song reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, making The Devil Went Down to Georgia the band’s most popular hit. The RIAA says that amongst songs with a state name in the title, this is the top seller of all time.

The plot is something like this. The devil is having a slow time finding souls, so he travels to Georgia in desperation. He’s willing to make deals. He happens upon a young fiddler named Johnny, to whom he offers one of these deals. The Devil challenges Johnny to a fiddle contest. If Johnny wins he receives the golden fiddle upon which the devil plays. The assumption is that the fiddle is worth a fortune. If the devil wins, however, Johnny loses his soul.

The Devil starts.  Demons come from hell to help him put on a rock ‘n roll extravaganza.  Johnny may be in trouble.  Johnny’s work with a simple fiddle is even better.  The devil can’t argue.  The devil gives him the golden fiddle.  Johnny teases is the devil, telling him he’s open for a rematch at any time.  In the original version of the song, son of a gun was replaced by a more colorful phrase.

Remakes and parodies soon followed.  “El Diablo bajo a Georgia”  is a Spanish version.  The cartoon Futurama features a contest between the main characters and the robot Devil.  But after the robot devil plays they beat him in the head with the golden fiddle so they can escape. There’s a very clever music video of the song on Youtube titled “Primus – The Devil Went Down to Georgia“.  It includes a very clever animated version of the story.  Even Charlie Daniels got back in on the fun by recording a sequel with Johnny Cash.  Daniels named it “The Devil Comes Back to Georgia”.

The Devil Went Down to Georgia was sung by Charlie Daniel’s band. And if you heard ‘em sing it when it was done you’d give them boys a hand.

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The Beatles had 12 official UK studio LPs from 1963 to ‘70 and most of them were brilliant which makes picking just 3 of their albums as the top three is extremely hard.

Twelve? You’ve probably heard that they had 13. That 13th “album” is Magical Mystery Tour which was originally released just as an EP in the UK. An “album” version of it was cobbled together in the US by adding some earlier singles to it.

Beatles purists don’t consider it one of The Beatles LPs, although it has been added to The Beatles official UK discography since the 1970s (when it was released in the UK because so many people were importing the US Magical Mystery Tour LP.)

#1 The White Album

This double album includes many of The Beatles greatest moments. It also includes some of the songs that a lot of people think of as their worst. But I actually think those experimental songs (such as “Wild Honey Pie” and “Revolution #9″) add to the magic of the album. This was an “anything goes” album and it’s all the better for it.

#2 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

A lot of people claim that this legendary album is overrated and I suppose that’s true from the standpoint that some of The Beatles other albums sometimes get overlooked in comparison. Some less informed Beatles fans think that Sgt. Pepper was The Beatles first attempt at “art music” but clearly Rubber Soul & Revolver beat it to the punch. But, I still think Sgt. Pepper is an amazing album that works as the band’s most “cohesive statement” and I think while it may be underrated by those who are slightly ignorant of The Beatles whole career, I think it’s actually now underrated by those known as “hipsters.”

#3 Revolver

Revolver lacks the cohesiveness of Sgt. Pepper & Abbey Road. It lacks the expansiveness of The White Album. But it does have 14 truly great songs. It’s arguably the most consistently great LP The Beatles recorded.

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On 9/9/9 remastered versions of The Beatles 13 official studio albums were finally released after over 20 years of waiting. The 1980s CD versions are thought by most to be a very poor example of mastering for CD which is a big reason why people have been wanting new better versions for so long.

The excitement isn’t just because of the remastered stereo albums, but also because of the mono versions of The Beatles albums being released on CD for the first time ever. This is actually  the first time ever that the mono mixes of some of these amazing Beatles albums will be available on compact disc.

Why should we care about such outdated mixes in 2009? Mono was being phased out in the 1960s, why should we listen to mono mixes today? Well certainly many people may feel that way, but true Beatles fanatics want to hear these albums as they were originally intended to be heard and to do that you must listen to the mono mixes.

The mono mixes are what The Beatles (along with George Martin & Geoff Emerick) were primarily focused on. The Beatles stereo mixes were done with little input from the band while they were very involved with the mono mixes which were worked on until they were just right. And because of this effort put into the mono mixes, many feel that the original mono mix of Sgt. Pepper is the “real” version of the album.

But that’s not all of the Beatles madness; there’s also the new Beatles Rock Band game which looks to be absolutely incredible from the previews. You can play through The Beatles whole career from their beginnings in Liverpool through their final album, Abbey Road. The Beatles Rock Band instruments even look like the real Beatles instruments (check out Paul’s bass guitar!) And now for the first time with the Beatles Rock Band game, you can sing harmonies.

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Queen Songs

A popular music rock band called Queen.

This short article is dedicated to Queen Songs. Freddie Mercury, Brain May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon,was the bands line up in 1971.

While a little research revealed they had a grand total of 39 songs on the original vinyl records. Remember vynil?Black and round with a hole in the middle and when scratch went click,click,click. Of course the one that anyone worth their salt knows is Queen Bohemian Rhapsody. Other stand out tracks, We Will Rock You, Killer Queen and Dont Stop Me Now.

The band started out in the 1960's, finding their legs when Freddie Mercury started to front the band and sang lead. The album which seem to bring Queen recognition,was the album 'Sheer Heart Attack',released in 1974 and in 1975 the album 'A Night at The Opera' appeared.

History on the band. 1968/9 -1973. Brian May and Tim Staffell with drummer Roger Taylor, formed a band called 'Smile' while at London's Imperial Collage and singed to Mercury Records that year. Tim Staffell was a student at Ealing Art Collage. Tim introduced Farrohk to the band. Tim left to join another band called Humpy Bong,with Farrohk - later changing his name to Freddie Mercury - joined the band as the vocalist. Changeing the name to "Queen". The band did not really settle, until John Deacon joined as bass player in February 1971. There was the quite normal period of time while the band gelled together and not until 1974 that the band hit mainstream success. The Queen 2 album witch reach number 5 in the album charts and had the lead single 'Seven Sea's of Rye'.

Big Time beckonds.

The band third album 'Sheer Heart Attack' reach number 2 in the UK. Then the forth album 'A Night at The Opera' really put the band on the map. Queen songs from the album were the now legendary Bohemian Rhapsody. The rest is history.

Sadly Freddie Mercury passed away in 1991 and John Deacon retired in 1997.

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Aerosmith Dream On was the first single ever created by the group.  It first appeared on their initial album in 1973.  Steven Tyler wrote the song which was heavily influenced by the blues.

aerosmith dream on

Aerosmith Dream On was their first big hit.  It made it to 59 as a single.  The re release made it to six in 1976.  The first live performance of this song took place at a tiny inn.  Aerosmith Dream On later became part of a number of compilations and boxed sets.

Aerosmith Dream On was named one of the 500 songs that shaped rock.  Rolling Stone had it 172 out of 500 of the top songs ever made.  Two other Aerosmith songs, Sweet Emotion and Walk This Way, are tied for this song in the minds of fans as Aerosmith’s signature song.

Artists often sample songs like Aerosmith Dream On in other music.  This is when a portion of a song is used in the new work.  It was featured as a sample as part of the 2002 album Eminem Show.  Aerosmith’s guitaris played the guitar in the sample.  Some less famous musicians also covered Aerosmith Dream On.  These include Andru Donalds, and a rapper named Slim Thug.

aerosmith lyrics dream on

Some claim the song was written by Led Zeppelin.  That’s false.  Some Buick commercials use the song.  Their slogan is Dream Up.    Movies like Last Action Hero used the song.

Aerosmith Dream On has been featured in a number of video games.  It was used in the opening of Dead or Alive Ultimate.  Aerosmith even has their own game – Guitar Hero Aerosmith.  The song was re-recorded just for the game.  The song could be downloaded as part of Guitar Hero III.   It was a promotion for the new game.

Even orchestras have been involved with Aerosmith Dream On.  MTVs 10th anniversary featured one such performance.  And in 2006 members of Aerosmith performed it with the Boston Pops.  The song has been dedicated to a captured in Israeli soldier.  As well as to a fan of the band was murdered.

dream aerosmith

The song Aerosmith Dream On has become an institution.

http://dreamming.com/

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