Covers

I've been thoroughly schooled in the diversity of truly great Beatles covers in the last 24 hours. You be the one to judge whether or not these are better than the original. Let me know if there are any good ones out there that I missed.

Credit goes to Micah Dubinsky



Credit goes to Dmitri Cherniak

I need a translator

I thought long and hard before posting this about whether or not there exists any Beatles' covers that surpass the original. This is the only one that came to mind. If you can think of any others please comment and let me know. Joe Cocker is one of my top four white/male singers along with Robert Plant, Jeff Buckley and Freddy Mercury. It sounds like he just ate a carton of cigarettes but it works magnificently. Enjoy.

Joe Cocker (Live Woodstock 1969) from David Lee on Vimeo.

Nothing from Nothing

There's one reason people come to this blog and that's to hear good music. Keeping with that trend, this song will put a smile on your face from to ear to ear. You know why? Cuz it's a great f*&^%$# song.

India & Pakistan in the West

The music of India and Pakistan have had a profound influence on western music since the Beatles travelled to Rishikesh, India in 1968 to study transcendental meditation with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. This event spawned a wave of Indian influence on artists like Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, John Mclaughlin and more recently Pearl Jam and Jeff Buckley. Names like Ravi Shankar and Zakir Hussein have become familiar to us because of their numerous collaborations with western artists. The Indian practice of playing a melody over a single "drone" or stagnant note can be found in songs like Jimi's "Third Stone from the Sun", even Creed's "Higher". Unfortunately, this concludes my knowledge of Indian music so I'll let these videos demonstrate my point.

Note: In my minimal research for this post I came across this site, it has some of the best pictures of the Beatles that I've ever seen. http://www.thebeatlesinindia.com

Video the first: Jeff Buckley emulating Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, considered one of the greatest Pakistani singers of all time. A truly prolific figure.



Video the second: Pearl Jam singing an original song, "Long Road" with Nusrat's nephew Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. Hearing someone who has been trained in the art of Qawalli might help you understand why religion plays such a dominant role in those parts of the world.