Reading "Tune In," has opened my mind about being a "Covers Band." It has changed my thoughts about one of the great bands, The Beatles. I was always a little dismissive when it came to the very early Beatles' records. I didn't want to hear the Beatles do cover songs, I wanted to hear them do their own songs. I was always of the mind that they really hit their creative stride around "Rubber Soul," and "Revolver" and it's true, you can see their songwriting take amazing, creative leaps with each record, and the middle to late period Beatles songs are really very, very impressive and took the band to another level.
But the book has propelled me back to their first record, "Please Please Me," and to the first volume of "Live at the BBC", and on these records, it's the covers that really knock your head sideways. The "live, in the studio," nature of the recordings is edgy and refreshing too. The Beatles really were one of the absolutely great covers bands. And their song choices are eye-opening, ear-opening, wide-ranging, and inspiring. I've been playing "Please Please Me," obsessively, as I've been reading the book, and I'm listening with new eyes and ears. And all the song choices are instructive and revealing.
The Beatles played songs they loved and they put all their heart and soul into them. And transformed them. Especially songs like "Baby It's You," or "Twist and Shout," or "Money," or that Ann Margaret, yes that's right, Ann Margaret cover "I Just Don't Understand." My favorite Beatles cover songs are the girl group songs (the Marvelettes, the Shirelles) that John Lennon sings. And you realize that they are some of the best vocal performances Lennon ever committed to tape.
Lennon was a tough character, with a brutally biting wit, he had lost lots of people very dear to him, at a very young age, and there is a hurt, a vulnerability, a subtle rage and loss buried deep in his psyche, that is alive in his voice. And it's on those girl group songs where Lennon really lets it all go. He puts everything he has into some of the great Goffin & King, or Bacharach & David & Luther Dixon songs. Really listen to Lennon's voice on these, it's all there, the best of Lennon.
And by doing songs written for a "girl group" Lennon gets to drop the mask, (Or, maybe it's that he puts on another mask?), he totally commits, he opens himself, he isn't afraid to be soft, or vulnerable, he inhabits the song, takes it in, and then, let's it fly. The beauty, the brilliance of Lennon, was to take that raw emotion, and to channel it into raucous R&R, and beautiful, soulful Pop and R&B.
And then of course there are all the Chuck Berry covers (Lennon always sang them, he loved Berry's inventive, witty and sophisticated word-play) or Little Richard (McCartney sang those to throat-clearing heights) or Carl Perkins (that would be George, he liked the funny, witty and off the wall tunes) and then everything else under the sun too. The Beatles grabbed songs from every quarter, and made them work for a 4 piece band, a really tight, no-nonsense 4 piece band that could sing and harmonize and own songs at will.
Kind of makes the whole "covers" vs. "originals" thing irrelevant. Listen to the songs. It's all there. And those covers happen to be some of the best songs ever written, and they come from everywhere. Pop, Soul, R&R, Country, Rockabilly, Show Tunes - little shining gems put through the Beatles sensibility.
