Malleable Beatles

One of the continuously fascinating things to me about the Beatles is the malleability of those Lennon-McCartney songs. The melodies and chords and composition are so strong that people have been able to get good results out of a wide variety of radical re-arrangements.

I have a Mexican version of "Strawberry Fields Forever" that I really like, and even a good bluegrass version.

Then there's the "Buddy Holly" version of "A Day in the Life" by Big Daddy. They arranged it with "Peggy Sue" guitars, and it works beautifully. It actually sounds better after the novelty effect wears off.

But I'm writing here to recommend an outfit I only just heard of called The Thurston Lava Tube. They're an English band that describe themselves as a "psychedelic, experimental surf instrumental group."

Specifically, they have free downloads of a kind of "Bustin' Surfboards" arrangement of "I Am the Walrus" of all things. This isn't the most obvious song for such an arrangement, but I was pretty pleased.

Download
"I Am the Walrus" by The Thurston Lava Tube
"I Am the Walrus-LIVE" by the Thurston Lava Tube
"Help" by The Thurston Lava Tube

Now, this isn't going to make anyone forget the classic Beatles original, but it's pretty cool to see how surprisingly well it plays. It's totally neat-o to see how well such a thing actually works.

Best of all for old time Beatle fans, get into this other arrangement, and ponder on it a few times. Then listen to the Beatles original again. It kind of brushes the dust of over familiarity off the classic.

THE BEATLES ARE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE
MUSIC SUSTAINS THE SOUL

Article Author: Al Barger

Unreformed hawkish Hoosier hillbilly Al Barger runs the still squeezin' down the psychodelic Kentucky moonshine at More Things. What with the paranoid religious visions, the Pentecostal music, visions of God and anarchy running amok and such, somebody …

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