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music Video games

It’s the Beatles!

Today’s release of The Beatles Rock Band video-game and the remastered CDs is enough to get me excited about the band all over again.

Not that I’ll rush out and replace my collection of CDs with these new ones, but it’s sorely tempting to buy my the new versions of a few favourites, such as Sgt Pepper, The White Album and Abbey Road, which were the first three I bought on CD, back in the late-80s. [Extensive review of the remastered versions].

I just love the opening animation from Rock Band.

(Watch it here to see it without the added intro bit, and in better quality.)

Even the commercial is cool.

I only just got around to getting Guitar Hero, so I won’t rush to get Beatles Rock Band, and I’d want to make sure the guitar is compatible — apparently it is. I’ll keep playing through GH and look at BRB at some stage later when it’s dropped in price.

Daniel’s Beatle Trivia#1: Favourite Beatle song of the moment: Paperback Writer. Love that riff.

Daniel’s Beatle Trivia#1 2: About halfway through The Inner Light I always expect it to start repeating itself, because that’s what the first copy I had of it (a secondhand LP of The Beatles Rarities) did.

By Daniel Bowen

Transport blogger / campaigner and spokesperson for the Public Transport Users Association / professional geek.
Bunurong land, Melbourne, Australia.
Opinions on this blog are all mine.

5 replies on “It’s the Beatles!”

I must admit I’ve had an up and down relationship with the Beatles over the years! More or less started about 15 years ago when I started to listen to Gold FM. I don’t listen to them anymore- I’m a Magic 1278 man now, so I don’t know how often Gold play the Beatles nowadays, as it’s all ’90s music now, I understand! But there was a time where I swear they were playing Beatles songs every HOUR!! Man it was annoying! Sure, I like the Beatles as much as the next guy, but not THAT much! Constant repetition just tends to put me off! Andrew S and I used to joke that Gold would have a Beatles “vigilance button”, to press in an emergency ( no Beatles song for that hour ), along with a Beach Boys one, and a Bohemian Rhapsody one- man I hate the Beach Boys!
I remember a few years back when he had his show on Gold, Wilbur Wilde interviewing George Martin about the Beatles, and Willy mentioned to him that Gold’s playlist consisted of something like 18% (don’t quote me!) of what Martin had produced, ie. mostly Beatles songs! I just found it maddening! They really put me off the Beatles for a while because of it!
Speaking of old albums, probably my first real recollection of listening to them is from an old 8-track, yes, 8-track of HELP! Anyone remember those!? I don’t fawn over the Beatles as most people do, but they were a great band, with many great songs!
On a side note, what is the obsession with Guitar Hero? Yeah, it can be fun to play, but what draws people to it for HOURS!!!! As a guitar player, it infuriates me that people seem to think they’re expert axe thrashers, when there is NO similarity between a real guitar and a GH one! If only people devoted as much time to learning real guitar as they did on GH, we’d have a nation of guitarists! I note my cousin, who’s a GH expert, bought an electric guitar to learn, and I would say that I’ve played it more than he has everytime I visit! As for my beauty, I love playing my Gibson Les Paul Classic, even if I don’t get much of a chance to play it nowadays! By the way, an error with the GH Les Paul-shaped guitar- Les Paul’s don’t have tremolo arms, or “whammy bars” as they are referred to!
I sound pedantic, but it takes a lot of practise to play guitar, and I think GH tends to trivialise it! But I’ll acknowledge that GH and RB are enjoyable- the singing for me moreso!

Daniel, you’ve got two #1 trivias, rather than a #1 and a #2 (unless this is an allusion to the best-of album “#1”)

But I totally agree about “Paperback Writer” – it’s a fantastic song, great rhythm to it. I also like the rhythm in “Ticket to Ride”, but “Paperback Writer” is my favourite track at the moment.

Oh, and Andrew – Guitar Hero is popular because it’s fun to pretend to be a real guitarist. The game is also quite a lot of fun, and has a good difficulty curve.

I’ve tried and tried and tried to learn guitar, but it’s not something I’ve ever come close to being good at. I play real-life keyboards and drums, and I sing pretty well too – so it’s not a lack of musical ability – I just can’t get the hang of guitar, even though I’d like to.

People who play GH don’t really think they’re ace guitarists (or if they do, then they’re kidding themselves). It’s not meant to be a guitar simulation, it’s just a less silly version of air guitar (where everyone is Jimmy Hendrix / Slash / Satriani / ).

I can confirm that the GH guitar works fine. I’m using one, together with the other instruments from the orig. RB.

My review: TB:RB is the best game I have ever seen. It is superb. Buy it. 10/10

Cheers
Ron

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