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December 21, 2004

Beatles mashups ()

by fluffy at 10:07 PM
It kind of bothers me that whenever someone decides to mash-up the Beatles with something else (like Jay-Z or the Beastie Boys), the Beatles are always used as backup and the something else always takes the forefront.

I should do a mash-up someday which turns that around.

Comments

#4088 12/22/2004 05:39 am
Do it! There's an a capella version of "Because" on one of the Beatles anthology albums that'd be perfect for a trip-hop or ambient remix...

The sitar version of "Across the Universe" has some interesting possibilities, too. I'm thinking one of those psychadelic GOA-type dealies.
#4089 12/22/2004 05:44 am
Of course... you're talking about mash-ups, which usually have some element of rap or hip-hop, and not remixes... <_< >_>

I don't have any suggestions there.
#4090 12/22/2004 06:33 am
Well, a mashup seems to usually just be a glorified remix except with more recognizeable backing tracks. Which is probably why the Beatles are usually used as a backing to hip-hop vocals, since Beatles' backup is so awesome that it's recognizeable, while with hip-hop it's only the vocals you have to go with. (I mean, if you were to turn The Grey Album on its head and, for example, put the vocals of Savoy Truffle to the backup of 99 Problems, you'd just have a dub remix of Savoy Truffle.)

Any song which has easily-isolated vocals is a candidate for mashing up. That a capella 'Because' is a perfect candidate, and also 'Yesterday' would work well. I should totally work on this kind of stuff while I'm in Albuquerque next week (even if it means having to take my firewire media drive with me).
#4091 12/22/2004 07:06 am
Yeah, I guess the main problem with trying to turn it around would be isolating the vocals It'd be hard to do it with anything but their softer, more subdued songs.

By the way, has Jay-Z officially said anything about the Gray / Double Black albums / whatever other remixes out there? It seems to me that a rapper that releases an a capella album is practically INVITING illegal mix/mashes.

Of course, not that his opinion about it would really matter, legally, but I wonder what he (and for that matter, Paul and Ringo) think about it.
#4092 12/22/2004 08:31 am
He specifically released the a capella version for remixing. I don't know whether he's commented on any specific remixes though.
#4094 12/22/2004 09:41 am Beastles
I'm glad to see I was not the only one who didn't care for that.
#4099 12/22/2004 02:46 pm
Oh, I thought the Beastles was pretty good, actually. I'm just tired of the Beatles being given this whole marginal second-tier "backing track" status.
#4120 12/29/2004 08:50 am
http://www.boingboing.net/2004/12/29/incredible_beatles_m.html
#4175 Guestman (unregistered) 01/07/2005 12:36 pm Beatles as backing
What you folks are saying just isnt really true- there are a lot of bootlegs using the Beatles vocals up front to good effect.

Check out Karma in the Life by Go Home Productions
James Brown Can Work It Out by DJ Prince
Rigby Reggae by Loo and Placido
Let It Be Me by Soundwasta (which uses vocals from the beatles and shaggy too)
#4176 01/07/2005 12:59 pm
Cool... are there links to these online? Note that I didn't say that these things WEREN'T happening, just that it *seemed* like it wasn't happening, and that all of the current widely-publicized mash-ups in this new fad were just using Beatles as backing tracks.