In 1964, The Beatles put together a one-off variety show, with musical numbers specially pre-recorded for the show, presented in the style of theater-in-the-round.
Around the Beatles was aired in the UK and later that same year in the US, but never commercially released. The show includes The Beatles performing a scene from
A Midsummer's Night Dream, with Paul McCartney as Pyramus, John Lennon as his lover Thisbe, George Harrison as Moonshine, Starr as Lion, and
Trevor Peacock (the only actual actor in the lot) in the role of Quince. A
color clip of that was
posted previously, but you can watch the entire (almost) hour-long show with The Beatles' segments accompanied by seven other musical acts,
on Dailymotion or
YouTube, though it's in black and white.
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posted by filthy light thief
on Apr 18, 2013 -
14 comments
Jon Brion gets around. As a composer, he scored some of the best movies of last decade and change –
Punch-Drunk Love,
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,
Synecdoche, New York, and
I ♥ Huckabees. As a producer, he's worked with
Fiona Apple,
Kanye West,
Aimee Mann, and the excellent bluegrass outfit
Punch Brothers. He writes pop music like the best of them – witness
Meaningless,
Knock Yourself Out,
Here We Go, or
Didn't Think It Would Turn Out Bad for a nice sampler of his style and range. His live shows are notoriously whimsical and eccentric – he's apt to perform
Radiohead's "Creep" in the style of Tom Waits, or cover
Stairway to Heaven as a one-man band, recreating all the parts to its climax on the fly.
posted by Rory Marinich
on Mar 9, 2013 -
20 comments
In March of 2009, an R.E.M.
tribute and benefit concert was held at Carnegie Hall. One of the most interesting covers of that evening was
Ingrid Michaelson's take on "Nightswimming."
Michaelson used a looping pedal to slowly build the harmonies, so that by the end of the song she was accompanied by a whole choir of her own voice. While the Carnegie performance isn't available online, you can see a pared-down but still extraordinary performance from her
appearance at the Sirius XM studios.
(YT)
posted by shiu mai baby
on Sep 11, 2012 -
25 comments
The female bandmembers of
Chairlift,
Au Revoir Simone,
Class Actress, and
This Frontier Needs Heroes get together with "
an essentially revolving cast of indie Brooklyn sirens, twice a year in a living room in Greenpoint to cover a single, classic song that they learn and arrange right before they perform. Calling themselves
Girl Crisis, the group covers a classic (mostly
a capella) from a male artist each Winter and a female artist each Summer. The performances are are filmed with a Super 8 camera, are not open to the public and exist only online. Their latest: Leonard Cohen's
"Dance Me To The End of Love".
(Via) [more inside]
posted by zarq
on Jun 22, 2012 -
44 comments
Colombian video artist Dicken Schrader covers Depeche Mode songs with the help of his young children, Milah and Korben, using some unexpected objects as instruments and illustrative props. Three split-screen videos: "
Strangelove", "
Everything Counts", & "
Shake The Disease".
posted by flex
on Jan 29, 2012 -
22 comments
Looking for something familiar with a twist? Best told from their About Us Page: Vitamin Records was formed in Los Angeles in 1999 to provide music lovers with high quality string quartet, lounge and electronic tributes to major pop and rock artists. Vitamin's mission is to offer fans exciting versions of their favorite songs performed in new musical contexts.
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posted by filmgeek
on Mar 23, 2011 -
22 comments
The Music of Jacques Brel is an article by music journalist Amy Hanson about the career of pop music legend Jacques Brel and his effect on popular music in the English language. A lot of songs and covers are mentioned in the article, below the cut are links to the songs that I could find videos of online.
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posted by Kattullus
on Aug 6, 2010 -
49 comments
Nouvelle Vague covers New Wave and Punk (MLYT) Nouvelle Vague (no, not
this one) does Bossa Nova covers of New Wave and Punk songs, including:
Dance with me (
Lords of the New Church),
Master and Servant (
Depeche Mode),
Love will tear us apart (
Joy Division),
Making plans for Nigel (
XTC),
Blue Monday (
New Order),
This is not a love song (
PiL),
The guns of Brixton (
The Clash), and one NSFW title
[more inside]
posted by zippy
on Aug 19, 2009 -
25 comments
Beck intends to record cover versions of selected albums in a day, unrehearsed, with guest musicians and then to release them on his website. Pitchfork announced it yesterday
here. The first song is
Sunday Morning.
posted by tawny
on Jun 19, 2009 -
48 comments
Written in 1967 by Bob Dylan, it was originally
quiet, lowkey... and vaguely menacing. But when Jimi Hendrix
redefined it the following year, even
Dylan knew that the song had changed forever.
Since then, it's been
covered (
over and over again),
praised almost as often,
analyzed,
referenced, and, of course,
found to be encoded in the minds of Cylons.
Originally released 40 years ago, erm, yesterday: All Along the Watchtower.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher
on Dec 28, 2007 -
41 comments
