Love

I had been resistant to the idea of Beatles' songs remixed as a soundtrack for a show by Cirque Du Soleil in Las Vegas. A lot of that just sounded wrong. I have all of the Beatles original records, I'm reluctant to fall into the trap of buying everything that's put out with their name on it. My friend Paula got the Beatles 1 CD a few years back. I asked her why she got it, because I knew she had all those songs already. "But not in one place," she added. Of course, now I own that CD, having received it in a Christmas grab bag last year.

I received the Love CD as an early Christmas present this year, and I admit I was wrong to doubt. It's exhilarating. Now, to say I am a Beatles fan is an understatement. I consider their catalogue to be the greatest music of the twentieth century. That wasn't the problem. What bothered me is that after one has listened to songs thousands of times, to hear them remixed, it seemed to me, was going to be a disturbing experience. I mean I know every little sound from these songs, when Paul comes in to scream during the Nah-Nah-Nahs of Hey, Jude, to the lines of Shakespeare in I Am the Walrus. Why would I anyone to monkey with that?

It helps when the monkier is George Martin, who produced almost of the original Beatles music and can be said to be the only person who truly deserves the title of "Fifth Beatle." This is a crowning achievement for him. He has taken the Beatles recordings (and what sounds like alternate tracks never heard before) and stitched together a patchwork quilt of sounds. Listening to it for the first time, especially without looking at the song list, is a game of Name That Tune, or perhaps more a jumping through a looking glass into a world (Pepperland?) where all of the Beatles songs exist as separate entities, floating through ether, bumping into each other and making friendships. Who would have though that you could mash Within You Without You and Tomorrow Never Knows and make it sound like that was intentional way back when? Or have the guitar opening of Blackbird feed effortlessly into Yesterday?

Many of the songs play as they did originally, such as I Am the Walrus, I Want to Hold Your Hand, and All You Need is Love. There are some odd but wonderful choices, such as Paul's mysterious coda to Cry Baby Cry, and The Sun King, played backwards. In addition to the songs listed, I heard shreds of many other songs, such as the opening chord of A Hard Day's Night, the drum solo from The End, a guitar riff from Hey, Bulldog and a snippet of Piggies.

So I have learned a lesson, and that is that the music of The Beatles, though they ended their relationship thirty-six years ago, is an ongoing creative process. I'm going to be in Las Vegas in April, and though the tickets are prohibitively expensive, I just may have to go see the Cirque du Soleil show. I'm going to have to step up my search for that rich widow.