Entertainment For Lively Minds
The Fab Faux Play Abbey Road
Posted by Fraser Lewry on 4 May 2010 - 2:34pm.
Mark Ellen just forwarded me this clip, and I thought I'd share. It's the Fab Faux, a New York-based Beatles tribute band, playing the second side of Abbey Road. With no added overdubs.
To give you an idea of the calibre of musician involved, the bass player is Will Lee, who's played with George Benson, Steely Dan, Ringo Starr, James Brown, Cher, Al Green, Billy Joel, Liza Minnelli, Frank Sinatra, Carl Perkins, Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, etc etc. In other words, he knows what he's doing.
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Simply stunning
on 2 levels. Firstly, to hear and see that sustained level of near faultless musicianship over 16 odd minutes on such a complicated set of tight arrangements is incredible. Secondly, does anybody out there still need reminding that the HJHs were blessed with genius?
my sentiments entirely
these are not just any old musicians. It takes talent to recreate music to that degree of accuracy in studio conditions.
Wow
I really enjoyed that, still my favourite bit of the Beatles.
Is it me...
...or is one of the roadies wiping away a hot salty tear during "The End"?
That's just astounding. It really is.
Brilliant
That's the most faithful reproduction of any Beatles music I've ever heard played live - I would love to go to one of their gigs. On their website it looks like their next few gigs are in the US.
I wonder if they ever gig in the UK (apart from at Abbey Road)?
Pah
Robyn Hitchcock, Graham Coxon, Terry Edwards, Bedders from Madness et al did the whole thing in a pub last year plus relevant B sides. Was joyous
Oh Dear.
Oh dear, what was the point of that? Yes very good musicians, but copying note for note, pop music, yawn? I always thought pop music was more than that. The whole greater than the sum of its parts, blah, blah, blah. It is the imperfections that make it what it is. The Beatles were playing those parts for maybe the 10th time and that uncertainty can be heard as well as felt. It gives it energy and life. Thank god they split up. Please Word massive you don’t all think this middle aged noodling is “simply stunning" ?
I'm with you, Rab100
Well, nearly. I think this is very well executed, and it sheds new light on the songs themselves. And clearly they are enjoying themselves, which is fair enough.
But ultimately it doesn't add up to much. I've played in enough cover bands in my time not to be snobbish about them - a good cover version is far better than a crap original. But it's also taught me that a good original trumps a good cover version by a several degrees of magnitude. As well played as these versions are, they are millionth as interesting as the originals. You don't get that personality that you got with the Beatles, nor do you get that 'Summit of the Mountain' sense of triumph that only happens when a song has been painstakingly pieced together from nothing. Ultimately there is no creativity here - just very good musicianship.
It's funny that the Beatles' versions of other people's songs were never that accurate - there was more Beatles in there than there was, say, Carl Perkins.
yup - with you and all, Rab
I can copy Shakespeare, Dickens, Archer - does that make me a good writer? If I could imitate MLK and recite his speeches - what would it matter? It wouldn't make me great. Is there a difference between these guys and a guy copying a Rembrandt in chalks on a pavement? I'm sure they're having fun and some people might like to hear it, but that's it. Let's not get carried away.
I've heard it done better ...
... by four lads who shook the world.
Just leave it
The Stone Roses are never gonna reform.
I enjoyed it
I've never been able to make my mind up about tribute bands.
But I guess one key reason something like this fascinates some of us (clearly not all!) is because the Beatles never played it live themselves. I'd pretty much assumed that most of what they did after 65 or whenever it was probably couldn't be played live 'properly', certainly not Side 2 of 'Abbey Road'.
It's nice just to see it done.
Hmmm
and in other news, Yo Yo Mar is pretty good at playing some tricky Bach:
Is this pop music? is this any different to what professional orchestras do every night of the week? I'm not sure this is anything special at all. Even if it is an amazing piece of music brilliantly played by some very talented musicians.
Second best version I've heard
It's wish fulfilment isn't it? I know all Ringo's fills by heart on those tracks and would *love* to have been sat on that drum stool doing it myself with my old band. It's their hobby band, isn't it? Session musicians having fun and doing a splendid job and where's the harm in that?
Worthwhile exercise
I wouldn't go as far as saying it is stunning, but I do think it is a pefectly valid exercise, even if it is only to show that it can be done. After all, as has been pointed out, the Beatles never played it live themselves.
Incidentally Fraser, I'm not sure that is in Abbey Road, is it? All the Sirius branding suggests it was done at the studios of Sirius Radio, home of the Howard Stern show, for whom the recording was done.
Despite his impressively long CV, Will Lee is probably best known for being a member of David Letterman's house band.
You're quite right.
That was me mis-reading the text at Vimeo. Duly edited. Thanks.
Dat's nice!
But I'd be surprised if our very own Bootleg Beatles couldn't do that
Incidentally, there is a very good band called the Waybacks who play at Merlefest most years. In 2008 they announced the inaugural Waybacks Hillside Stage Classic Album Hour and played Led Zeppelin 2 in its entirety on a mixture of bluegrass and electric instruments
Last year, which I attended, they played Sticky Fingers, including Emmylou Harris singing Wild Horses, and mandolin king Sam Bush playing the lead guitar parts on a big old Gibson Firebird
And this year (ie last weekend) they apparently played Abbey Road. In each case the album was a closely guarded secret, with the audience in suspenders until the first chords were struck. I've only seen a wee bit of this years as it starts to come through on YouTube. Sarah Dugas of The Duhks seems to be the main vocalist, but Elvis Costello and Jim Lauderdale clearly do their bit. Banjo ace Jens Kruger and dobro maestro Jerry Douglas seem to be mainstays. Here's a taste
Impressive, but somehow rather sterile.
A fine example of why session players are session players and not creators.
Despite my sniffiness, I'd gladly pay good coin to see them live.
The drummer has got the best voice...
which I'm not sure can be said about The Beatles.
Gig?
Word-sponsored 'Abbey Road'-in-its-entirety plus other 'deep cuts' (and guests?!) at the Royal Festival Hall gig? :-)
it's easy to be precious about it if you are a serious musician
but as a hobby plunker, I didn't find it sterile at all, I found it absolutely captivating. Best link for ages.
The Bootleg Beatles
did part of the medley (from She Came In Through The Bathroom Window onwards, if I remember rightly) on their pre-Christmas tour last year. I saw them at the Albert Hall and it really was brilliant - another note-for-note reproduction, only with (in my opinion) better vocals. That said, they didn't do 16 minutes of it.
Incidentally, I must have listened to Abbey Road 20 times in the last fortnight (for no particular reason other than a periodic obsession) and haven't yet got remotely tired of it.
Spookily
I've had the same obssession. It's a magic record.
Very impressive, I suppose
But the horn section playing the refrain of You Never Give Me Your Money during Carry That Weight at 13.03 is horrifyingly limp. The right notes in the right order, but...
Agreed
On the original, I've always thought that's perhaps the best 10 seconds or so of the whole album.
Reconsider Abbey
I've had another watch. It is quite impressive, actually.
Loved it.
Great to see people actually playing that stuff, and getting into the groove. Really excellent.
Bah to all you naysayers.....
I had no idea
Rhod Gilbert could play the keyboard.
Whatever the merits of a cover, the drum solo in The End still sends a shiver down my spine. Magic.
Other lookalikes
Barry from Eastenders on guitar at front
The bloke who won Masterchef last year on sitting-down guitar
Manuel Almunia on drums
Lasted a minute...
...
Oh. Why?
Did the "Person from Porlock" call?
It's all right if you don't know the original
It's not like a classical piece - in these you would be trying to interpret the notes on the page, not trying to re-create 'Toscanini's performance' (at least, I hope not).
So it's a pointless exercise: it's not the original, and it's not sufficiently different that it says something new about the music.
Excuse my French, Fraser,
but all you naysayers can just eff off. That was magnificent. Utterly magnificent. Just the fact that these guys, these guys who can play the arse off any of you whinging bleaters, choose to do this makes me glad to be alive. Magnificent. Rock music has never again reached the pinnacle of Abbey Road. Forty years on and it still rocks my boat. Magnificent.
/HJH rant.
/Wilful Proustian moment.
/sniffles
Agreed...
I don't care that it's a cover; yes it's sterile - because it's an attempt to cover the original in as exact a manner as possible.
As a technical musical exercise it's stunning and reminds me why that in spite of half-a-lifetime as a professional musician, I never rose above the third division.
I'll never fail to love watching superb musicians playing their instruments well - irrespective of whether they're playing their own music or someone else's. It's only in the last 40 years that the cult of the 'player-writer' has become prevalent in popular music; prior to that there were 1000 years of every musician being in a 'cover band'.
I'm with you, VV
My favourite part of my favourite album played by a group of musicians who clearly love it as much as I do.
Me too
For me side two of Abbey Road was the The Beatles at their absolute peak and it still sounds as vital and exciting as ever. To hear these players give such an astonishing rendition sent shivers up my spine. I reckon a new term should be coined for what they're doing. "Tribute Band" doesn't do it justice.