Ray Newman says: "August marks the 40th anniversary of the release of the Beatles' 1966 album Revolver. I've spent two years working on a short book about the making of the album which is available as a free PDF download. It's licensed under Creative Commons"

[link]

Hey, it's Roller Derby Night in my neighborhood!

Roller derby has gotten big in B'more this year too and a bunch of friends are involved with it (head ref is our friend Dean aka Johnny Crash). So we have a new roller girl song.

THE Beatles have been outed. The Fab Four’s first album, Please Please Me, has been named as one of the top 50 gay albums of all time.

John, Paul, George and Ringo’s 1963 LP, featuring Twist and Shout and I Saw Her Standing There, is ranked alongside records by Abba, Elton John and Boy George in a gay pop pantheon published by Attitude, a gay lifestyle magazine.

“That summer it was the gay album,” said Simon Napier-Bell, the former manager of Wham! who nominated the record. “Every party, every club, everywhere you went, Please Please Me blasted out. George and Paul singing into one microphone, their cheeks touching, was the gayest thing we’d ever seen.”

The Beatles rarely wrote about homosexuality, although You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away is thought to have been about Brian Epstein, their gay manager.

But the magazine claims the Beatles’ first album, ranked 30th in the list, represented “a turning point — the beginning of the modern gay era”, because it embodied a sense of sexual freedom and tolerance.

The top 50 includes Barbra Streisand, Take That and the Pet Shop Boys, but only one album dates back further: a 1961 recording at the Carnegie Hall in New York by Judy Garland, a gay icon whose role in The Wizard of Oz gave rise to the term “a friend of Dorothy” to mean a gay man.

The list is topped by the eponymous debut by Scissor Sisters, the New York band. Their success coincides with a boom in gay music.

“It has become fashionable to listen to gay music whether you are gay or not,” said Peter Tatchell, the gay rights campaigner. “Gay culture is seen as the cutting edge of all kinds of invention, not just in music, but also fashion, art and design.”

For Boy George, who nominated David Bowie’s 1970 record The Man Who Sold the World, the days of gay musicians portraying themselves as straight are over.

“Now lots of straight boys in rock bands paint their eyes and exude camp,” he told Attitude. “I say ‘God bless ’em!’”

[link] (link does not have the actual list)

Also,

“Gay culture is seen as the cutting edge of all kinds of invention, not just in music, but also fashion, art and design.”

No way!

So, according to Noel Gallagher, the freeze frame technique in Trainspotting was first used in the video for Sabotage. I watched MTV; I got what I deserved.

Holy late to the party, Batman! It's a PE/TV mashup by the good folks (or one guy) at Go Home Productions:

'BRING THE TELEVISION' Public Enemy / Television Bring The Noise / Marquee Moon Bit of a quicky this one. I had originally paired Television with J-Lo's 'Waiting For Tonight' but ran out of patience with key clashes in the chorus. Next option? Pull out a rap acapella. Slap! Apparently Tom Verlaine listens to WFMU. August 2003

Not sure how I missed it on previous ventures to GHP, but if it was ever there it's gone now. But I wouldn't torment my friend Corwood by talking about a Television mashup if I couldn't deliver the goods. It took some searching, and I didn't find the mp3, but I found a streaming audio version here. It starts at 12:20 & is about a minute and a half long. Was worth the effort (& not just because I ignored my job for a bit.)

And I think Mr. Bubblegum Music Is the Naked Truth may be interested in and Archies/Velvet Underground mashup (Sugar Sugar/I'm Waiting for the Man/The Gift). Lester Bangs should have lived to hear this.

Lester Bangs should have lived to hear this.

Absolutely. Though I think he'd actually prefer the Stooges / Salt N' Peppa mash of Push It / No Fun.

"Sexual Wonderwall" is pretty awesome too.

The Gossip have a free iTunes download. That, and their KRS video podcast episode are both worth downloading.

So, according to Noel Gallagher, the freeze frame technique in Trainspotting was first used in the video for Sabotage. I watched MTV; I got what I deserved.

Well that pretty much justifies my feeling that both Gallaghers are among (amongst?) the biggest wankers on the planet, as the technique in the Sabotage video was (deliberately and lovingly) lifted from 70s cop shows.

Also, nobody deserves Noel, Buffy Not!Spring.

Scratch one off the "People I've always wanted to see but haven't yet" list. I saw Tom Waits last night.

And thanks to Corwood for posting the tour info last month. Early July was hectic for me, and I might well have missed it had I not seen it here.

Excellent! Glad to help.