Posts Tagged ‘Beatles’
Visionary failures…
As one struggles to control “iPad lust,” one might take a moment to find perspective. Harry McCracken‘s terrific Technologizer is a great place to start.
In “Mr. Edison’s Kindle” Mr. McCracken observes that:
The brightest inventors on the planet keep coming up with ideas that never amount to much–even when they set out to solve real problems, and even when their brainchildren foreshadow later breakthroughs. And professional tech watchers have long proven themselves prone to getting irrationally exuberant about stuff that just isn’t ready for prime time.
… and then he regales one with fifteen great examples– from Edison’s “metal books” to “home teletypes,” inventions that spoke to real needs/desires (as events subsequently demonstrated), but that were at least a decade ahead of their times. For example:
The Watch-Case Phonograph
As seen in: Popular Science, June 1936.
What it was: A bizarrely small phonograph built into a watch case. You wound it up like a mechanical timepiece, whereupon a “midget record” played music through a “diminutive horn.”
Flies in the ointment: It would have required the world to accept a new media format: midget records. (Their running time is unknown–wonder if you could fit an entire song onto one side?) Also, holding the player up to your ear would have gotten old fast.
When did the basic idea become practical? The introduction of the Sony Walkman in 1979 kicked off the era of pervasive, portable prerecorded music.
Modern counterpart: The iPod, of course.
Perhaps as a courtesy to Apple and the big news of the week, McCracken left the Newton off the list.
As we muse that timing is everything, we might recall that it was on this date in 1969 that the Beatles gave their last public performance– an impromptu concert from the roof top of Apple Studios in London. Neighbors complained about noise, and police broke up the concert… at which point John Lennon closed with: “I’d like to say thank you very much on behalf of the group and myself, and I hope we passed the audition.” Get Back!
The Fab(ricated) Four…
On the heels of the release of Beatles remasters as box sets, a special kind of tribute: “The Beatles Never Broke Up“– where readers can find a hitherto-unheard Beatles album from another (parallel) reality.
The work of “James Richards” (amusingly, the inversion of Richard James– aka The Aphex Twin, one of the most influential electronic musicians of the last century), the site tells the story of Richard’s acquisition of the “grail cassette,” and allows visitors to stream each newly-discovered track and to download the album in it’s entirety.
… though readers might be well-advised to do their downloading sooner than later. As earlier missives have noted, mash-ups have a nasty habit of incurring their honorees’ wrath…
As we ponder “piracy,” we might tip our bandanas to Privateer Francis Drake, who set out from Plymouth on this date in 1577, and returned almost three years later (September, 1580), the first captain to have completed a circumnavigation of the globe– an accomplishment for which Drake was knighted by Queen Elizabeth to become Sir Francis Drake.
(Readers will recall that Magellan, who sailed earlier, made it three-quarters of the way, but was killed in the Phillipines; his boats made it back to Portugal, but under the command of his navigator.)
The Hall of Unsung Singers…
Bill Kirchen is one of those guys… a musician’s musician, talented enough to perform regularly with the likes of Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, and Nick Lowe, at the same time that he’s at low-to-no risk of being accosted by the celebrity-obsessed masses…
With thanks to the terrific folks at TMM and KUT in Austin, a little something for a Saturday morning (do listen far enough in to get to Kirchen’s roster of other folks who “pull over”)…
As we tap our toes, we might recall that it was on this date in 1966 that the Beatles said “thank you, and goodnight” for the last time– at the end of their last public concert, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
source: RareBeatles.com
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Take me to your leader…
Just as one begins to feel self-satisfied about the dominance of humanity on earth, and the degree of interconnectedness afforded by Facebook, Twitter, and the like, this from the BBC:
A single mega-colony of ants has colonised much of the world, scientists have discovered.
Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same inter-related colony, and will refuse to fight one another. The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination.
…
While ants are usually highly territorial, those living within each super-colony are tolerant of one another, even if they live tens or hundreds of kilometres apart. Each super-colony, however, was thought to be quite distinct.
But it now appears that billions of Argentine ants around the world all actually belong to one single global mega-colony.
…
Read the entire story here.
As we contemplate connection (and redouble our efforts to emulate E.M. Forster), we might recall that it was on this date in 1957 that young Paul McCartny attended a church picnic at which a newly-formed band, the Quarrymen, were playing between sets, McCartney played a couple of tunes on the guitar for the group and its leader, John Lennon, who invited McCartney to join. McCartney did, but was slow to serious commitment (Paul missed his first gig, as he had a scout outing to attend).
Still, the group gained a following, changed its name to Johnny and the Moondogs, and recruited McCartney’s friend George Harrison. After bassist Stu Sutcliffe joined, they changed the name again, to the Silver Beetles, then finally to the Beatles. Tommy Moore joined the band as drummer and was replaced by Pete Best in 1960. After a tour to Germany in 1961, Sutcliffe left the band to become a painter (a scant year before he died of a brain hemorrhage), and the band returned to Liverpool. In 1962, five years after Lennon and Mccartney found each other, they found Ringo; Best left the band; the Fab Four–McCartney, Lennon, Harrison, and Starr–recorded “Love Me Do”… and the rest is history.
McCartney and Lennon in the Quarrymen (source: Dull Neon/Random Notes)
A mouse that roars…
Long-time (pre-blog) readers will recall Brian Burton– aka Danger Mouse– and his Grey Album, a mash-up of the Beatles (White Album) and JayZ that landed Mr. Mouse in trouble with the Beatles’ distributor, EMI… trouble that lingers.
So readers may be delighted-but-not-altogether-surprised at the release strategy for the new Danger Mouse album: It’s collaboration with David Lynch and Sparklehorse, featuring , among others, Julian Casablancas (The Strokes), Black Francis (The Pixies), Vic Chesnutt, The Flaming Lips, James Mercer (The Shins), Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals), Jason Lytle (Grandaddy), Nina Person (The Cardigans), and Iggy Pop (Stooges, Bowie, et al.)… pretty much a must-hear!
Rather than release this latest work in the traditional way, and face legal issues with EMI, Danger Mouse will be selling a blank CD-R along with lots of artwork. Buyers will be responsible for finding the music themselves (indeed, it’s findable on the internet, e.g., here) and burning the CD.
One tips one’s ears to you, Mr. Mouse!
As we limber our surfing fingers and contemplate changes in retail-as-we-know-it, we might recall that it was on this date 161 years ago, in 1848, that the first real department store, Alexander Turney Stewart’s Marble Palace, at Broadway and Chambers Street in New York City, opened…
The Marble Palace
(later the home of the New York Sun; now a City office building)
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