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"The Beatles Channel" on SiriusXM premiered a little more than 72 hours ago. I'm here to see what everyone thinks.
Reasons I am excited:
- It's about time that an all-Beatles channel reaches the masses!
- It's just like Beatles-A-Rama (which I've faithfully been listening to for 15+ years) but with a bigger budget.
- It's always been a lot more exciting to listen to a Beatles radio station than it is to just play these songs on your own. It's the element of surprise and the element of community that make it so special.
My only fear is that it will hurt stations like Beatles-A-Rama, Fab4Radio, and all of the others that have been working hard for a long time on this same concept. "The Beatles Channel" isn't exactly a new idea and most people probably think they're being original. When I was a kid, my hometown had an all-Beatles FM radio station called KBTL, which impresses me more now as an adult than I was able to realize as a child. How incredible is that?! NO ONE else ever got that treatment...until SiriusXM started doing this.
It's definitely about time that our lads have their own channel that will reach SO many people because that is something the lads AND music-lovers most certainly deserve, but I do hope their big budget doesn't hurt people like Pat Matthews, if you know what I mean. These are the people who have laid down their blood, sweat, and tears for Beatlemania. Budgets mean nothing. Heart means everything. I will faithfully listen to ALL of them, simply adding this one to my list.
PS: If you haven't been able to tell, Beatles-A-Rama has always been my favorite of them all. It's the first one I found (15+ years ago on Live365) probably because it's the oldest, so kudos to you, Pat. You've always had a great thing going!
I'm going to do my best to write a review on this glorious documentary that I was blessed enough to see yesterday on the big screen, but I fear I was too mesmerized to take it all in.
***There will be spoilers!
If I had to pick five major things that I was hoping would be included, they all were included. (I wouldn't expect anything less from Ron Howard, but I also know that it's hard to squeeze everything into 99 minutes.)
- I wanted the actual mania of Beatlemania to be represented fairly. That was most definitely portrayed, hahaha.
- I was hoping that it would mention their anti-segregation requirements within their contract(s).
- I was hoping it would make a big deal about the record-breaking and history-making appearance at Shea.
- I was hoping it would tell the real reasons behind the end of their touring: mostly the disaster in Manila and John's controversial misunderstood quote.
- I was hoping the documentary, which is dedicated to their touring years, wouldn't just end with "and that's the end of their touring years, so that's the end of this documentary now." They did a good job summarizing what happened afterward and more importantly, it didn't really slow down until after Sgt. Pepper! It carried it further before summarizing the rest of their story.
It did a good job presenting the story. There was lots of great footage and visuals beyond my expectations. The interviews that were included were amazing, although I wish there could have been more. I was particularly sad to not see Meryl Streep, but alas she's a busy lady. (They could have at least shown her clip like they did Sigourney Weaver, though.)
I was impressed that he was permitted to use Anthology material and Christmas Album material. I was glad that they used interviews from J&G just as they had interviews from P&R to help tell their story. I was thrilled that they rewarded all of the super-fanatics that went to see theater premieres with Shea in its completion. (We're still waiting for a DVD of it, by the way! We've been asking for how long...?)
If I think of more details to mention, I'll add to this entry in a comment. However, I will say that I often found tears in my eyes. (Of course, I had tears in my eyes the whole day.) There were many times when I felt the documentary was meeting my expectations and hopes perfectly, but other times it clearly exceeded them.
I did think it was weird how they mentioned the lads demanding to go to the Bahamas during the filming of "Help!" without mentioning that they also demanded the Swiss Alps too. However, you won't hear me say that anything disappointed me at all whatsoever! WATCH IT! I think novice fans will enjoy it just as fanatics like me did!
I can already see how disorganized this review sounds, but my mind just can't get any clearer right now. All I know is that it was exhilarating and I want everyone to watch it at least once in its entirety.
This is not a thought, opinion, or debate. This is a Beatley announcement from me to you. As some of you may know, I was inspired in August 2009 to write an academic-y book on the lads to serve as a potential thesis for my MA in the event that my life were to go in that direction. I've hard a time doing some of the research on my own because it's a HUGE project and thought that it would be nice to let other fanatics volunteer to help.
For years, I've had a thread on the Fab Forum at BeatleLinks, but just in the last year or so the traffic has dwindled there...which makes me terribly sad. It was the best forum anywhere. Anyway, after losing a place to go for help, I tried to think of where to go next. I wanted to do a blog, but after 7 years (no offense to you all reading) I've barely obtained a following. Plus, I didn't want anything I had written to be out there to be taken. Where do I go?
After considering everything I know of, I realized that Twitter would probably be a the best place to try. I was half right and half wrong. I am VERY impressed with the amount of followers I've obtained (more in a few days than here in 7 years) but haven't received one bit of actual help. I also know that if I use the Twitter account to advertise another outlet, no one will follow it through. Hmm. What do I do?
As far as I can think, Twitter still is my best option. I'm getting great exposure from great people, including other people who have written about the lads! I think what I need to do is do a better job of actually communicating rather than just throwing questions out there...although that usually also works over time.
If you want to help me out, please follow @BeatleWriter on Twitter and don't be scared to interact with me. Also, if you don't have anything to say, retweets are pretty powerful so that the exposure can branch out even further.
If anyone has any suggestions better than Twitter, please let me know. I'm going to continue to consider all of my options! XO
When I found out that our boys' music is going to start streaming, my first reaction was the same as when I found out they were going to be available on iTunes...which was the same reaction that Dhani had. They're worth so much more than that. The music industry is messed up now for a lot of reasons, but the easy access and cheap prices aren't helping with the quality of what's happening. You shouldn't be able to point-and-click for $0.99 for THE BEATLES. IT'S THE BEATLES!
After I stopped rattling my cane and tried to find a positive outlook, I realized that I can't prevent society from being what it is. If I want the young generations to be exposed to the lads, I've got to accept that they need to be accessed in any way required...except for bad remakes for commercials. That still angers me.
The Beatles are available on iTunes. Conveniently, their music that was on my phone from being uploaded into iTunes from my CDs has vanished. (All that shows up is what I've purchased through iTunes, which is a concept I don't even like for myself. Like I said, I don't like downloaded purchases. If I'm going to buy something, I better be able to hold it in my hands!) Also, with YouTube recently removing their music, there's just no way to have their music on-demand anymore while out and about. (There are amazing stations out there like Beatles-A-Rama that I will always cherish, but I'm referring to the times in which I want to hear a certain song.) Unless I want to carry my old, broken portable CD player in my hand with all my discs like I had to do before the days of the iPod, what choice do I have? I think I need them to be streaming even for myself.
The good news is, iTunes is a cheap purchase. These young kids don't even want to commit to purchases anymore...so what do they do? They have outlets like Spotify and they click on what they want to hear...which is awesome because the artists make money every time they're clicked on. In conclusion, I am very happy with this news. The people that I used to share YouTube links with can now go into their streaming outlets and make the boys money with every listen and at no extra cost to the uncommitted listener! I may just be getting myself a Spotify account for the first time come midnight...
To dig or to boycott the song "How Do You Sleep? That is the question...
This is something I recently posted onto my favorite Beatles social networking website. I've been torn about it since I first heard the song and was told who/what it was about, which was probably somewhere in my early teen years. Okay...let's list some feelings:
Dig:
*It's a great song in general, even just the music.
*That unmerciful, stinging fire within John is what people love and admire about him.
*The lyrics are very clever, especially the line about "Yesterday" and "Another Day."
Boycott:
*It's never good or nice to be hateful. Period.
*He attacked his long-time best friend who partnered his entire career peak...someone that everyone adores as much as himself!
*Whether they made up before John's death or not, that song permanently exists to embarrass and wound Paul.
Share your thoughts on this debate! What side do you stand on? Dig? Boycott? Let me know. Do you have a hard time enjoying the song? Are you able to forget about who it's targeting? Does it not bother you? Do you take the "everyone fights" approach? Do you think Paul's tiny one-line comeback in "Too Many People" was good or bad? Why? Let's really think/talk this out.
