Sunday, March 21, 2004
The Grey Album
I downloaded The Grey Album last weekend and I’ve been listening to it all week.
The first time you listen to it you spend a lot of time trying to work out which Beatles track each of the samples come from. After the 3rd or 4th play through, the samples cease to be snippets of the Fab 4 and start to be part of the songs. After a week of listening to the album, you can’t imaging the songs being any other way. That’s where EMI have really tripped up. This isn’t about someone stealing the Beatles music. It’s about creating a new, original piece of work from the pieces. If this was some kind of Jive Bunny cut-and-shove I could understand and sympathise. To censor this album just makes EMI look out of touch (and lets face it, it was probably a knee-jerk reaction, which is now backfiring spectacularly. I doubt if anyone listened to these tracks before releasing the legal hounds).
Stand out tracks (for me) are 99 Problems, which uses the guitar riff from Helter Skelter; and What More Can I say, which uses a snippet of guitar and a piano loop from While My Guitar Gently Weeps. The latter would probably go to number 1 if it were released as a single (and I’m sure it’s had more downloads than whatever fame-idol dross is at the top of the charts this week).
Everyone should hear this album, it’s shouldn’t be restricted to those of us with an Internet connection. Who knows it may even drive sales of the original albums. I’ve just dug out The White Album again and I think I’m going to go and buy The Black Album (I remember it getting a great review when it was released, but then it slipped off of my radar).
