BEATLE MADNESS VOLUME I

This is the 25th Mutiny in Jonestown studio album and is a complete album of 25 Beatle cover tunes. The songs range from early numbers ("If I Fell") all the way to the last one, ("The End", though I guess "Her Majesty" is technically the real last song). The twist though, is the instrumentation is only bass, drums and a 1967 Fender pedal steel guitar I'd recently acquired. The bass and drum parts stay as close to the original songs as possible while the pedal steel handles all the rhythm and lead guitar as well as the vocal melodies and harmonies.

A quick note about my thoughts on the Beatles and their influence on Mutiny in Jonestown. Music was always present in my home while growing up. My earliest memory is getting a special treat to stay up late to watch the Ed Sullivan show in early February of 1964 to see The Beatles American debut. I don't really remember anything about the show, but I clearly recall my mother putting me to bed that night and making a very prophetic statement saying, "the world is going to be very different now that the Beatles are here". From that day my early life revolved around The Beatles and The Stones as we usually had their latest albums on the turntable nearly every day.

There are frequent polls and heated debates on PA about when prog began and what the first prog album was. I'm one of the few that believes The Beatles released the first prog song in early 1967 ("Strawberry Fields Forever", on the double A-side single also including, "Penny Lane") and the first prog album in June of 1967, "Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band". You know how The Wizard of Oz begins in black and white and then turns to color when Dorothy opens the door to Munchkinland? For me that was the difference between the world before and after Sgt Peppers. That album changed everything about rock, among other things marking the turning point where there were no longer rigid rules about what a band was allowed to do and that opened the flood gates for even more inventive prog. For me, it's wide ranging styles and instrumentation make it the first eclectic prog album. Anyway, the point is whenever Mutiny in Jonestown finds itself in a rut, I go back and do some Beatle covers or learn some Paul McCartney Beatle bass lines and the musical world goes from black and white to full color all over again.

This album was a way to go back to my roots and get re-energized about Mutiny in Jonestown and also a way to see what I could do with my new pedal steel. I love the album and think it's very well done, if this wasn't a prog site I'd give it 4 stars, but because this album is covers of Beatle tunes (which some prog fans will love but the majority will think don't belong on a prog site) and will likely never be available on Bandcamp due to copyright issues, I'm giving it a 2 star rating.