Left of the Dial |
This Bird Has Flown: A 40th Anniversary Tribute to the Beatles' Rubber Soulby Mark Norris |
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Covering Beatles songs is a lot like performing Shakespeare; it’s very hard to bring anything new to the table and it’s very easy to fuck it up. Like The Bard, The Beatles stumbled upon an almost undefinable quality of greatness: the band's music was of it’s time and yet somehow timeless, able to cross generations with both its lyrical and melodic structure, and (perhaps most importantly) contained passages that stayed in the brain forever after being placed there once. Ever since the group first rose to international popularity over forty years ago, there have been countless tributes to Mop Tops. Back in the day, some of those musical appreciations came in the form of a campy response songs like “Yes, You Can Hold My Hand” an affirmative response to a question that no one asked. Recently, the group has provided a musical touchstone for film soundtracks. Everybody knows Beatles tunes, they’re simply ingrained into our subconscious, so everyone will “get it” if a Beatles song is used during a love scene, or a party scene, or a death scene. Which brings us to This Bird Has Flown: A 40th Anniversary Tribute To The Beatles’ Rubber Soul. While the idea of paying tribute to a particular Beatles album seems novel it’s a process that has already been successfully completed before (check out Booker T & The MGs’ McLemore Avenue, a funky take on Abbey Road, for proof). Yet in choosing to create a track-by-track tribute to one of The Beatles’ most important and enduring albums, the organizers behind This Bird Has Flown open themselves up to a certain amount of thankful praise and brutal criticism. Packed with cult level indie-rock stars and critically hailed singer-songwriters, the songs on this tribute fall into three categories: reverential readings that provide nothing new (read: boring), re-interpretations that actually breathe new life into the familiar (aka interesting) and new takes that fall far from the mark (i.e., whaaa?). Falling into this first category is the Donnas’ perfunctory take on “Drive My Car,” Rhett Miller’s uninspired rendition of “Girl” and Ben Kweller’s limp version of “Wait.” Of course, the second category provides more worthy listening. Sufjan Stevens wonderfully re-invents the clunky-country Ringo sung “What Goes On” into a half-minstrel, half-punk opus. By adding touches of mandolin and a dance beat, Mindy Smith turns out “The Word.” Both Dar Williams and The Yonder Mountain String Band successfully bring a touch of modern twang to “You Won’t See Me” and “Think For Yourself” respectively (Williams’ new arrangements on the song’s backing vocals is particular inspired). Ben Lee’s spare take on “In My Life” helps to further underscore that song’s breathless beauty and wisdom. In the final, more questionable category, you'll find that near-Shatner-esque hamminess of The Fiery Furnaces’ “Norwegian Wood,” Ben Harper’s ill-advised dub reggae reading of “Michelle,” and Ted Leo’s rushed punk take on “I’m Looking Through You.” This Bird Has Flown is a mixed bag, sure to please fans of the artists present here and sure to infuriate some Beatles purists. It’s a testament to the Beatles’ enduring greatness that even a tribute can create such debate.
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