Posts Tagged ‘Beatles’

Erie, Meet the Beatles again

The Beatles have got Erie’s number on 9/9/09.

Today marks a massive release of Beatles music product, perhaps the most extensive single-day release in their history. Most anticipated is The Beatles Stereo Box Set and The Beatles: Rock Band.

The Stereo Box includes remasters of all 13 studio albums, plus a DVD of mini-documentaries of each album (17 discs in all). The Beatles: Rock Band comes in multiple configurations from just the software to a limited edition premium edition.

These releases will open The Beatles to a whole new generation of fans, who I’m confident won’t be lost on the musicianship, tight harmonies, and inspiring song structure of the band that defined a generation and then some.

My first album ever was Magical Mystery Tour. My older brother Peter, bought it for me the Christmas I received a Decca record player. I was seven.

Those were the days in Erie when JET 1400 ruled the roost, playing the Beatles and R&B hits that were hot sellers at the Record Bar. I heard early in my career that Frank Martin, the Morning Mayor, used to score a 60 share of audience back in the day. Playing “Can’t Buy Me Love” couldn’t hurt.

What about you? Are you in the market for this amazing new boxed set? What are your memories of the Beatles?

Halloween Special: Remembering the ‘Paul is dead’ hoax

By 1969, the world has already experienced the summer of love, the murders of Martin and Bobby, and fear and suspicion was rampant. So when a college student named Tom called a popular Detroit radio DJ talking about evidence he discovered that suggested that Paul McCartney of the Beatles had died, it set the world on fire.

Even though there was no internet chat rooms, blogs or 24-hour cable news, this rumor spread very quickly and was difficult to refute, given the volume of so-called “evidence.”

The shortened version of the story is that Paul McCartney had a minor car accident in 1966. Rumors about the accident were amplified to the assertion that he had crashed his car and was beheaded. He was then replaced by a lookalike, but the Beatles had left clues in their music and album art about the switch.

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