Album Review

So apparently the Beatles entire catalog was re-issued earlier this month. Spruced up mixes are now available, hardcore fanatics can shell out for the box set, and the kids can even snag the Beatles Rock Band videogame. You’d think they would’ve thrown together a commercial or two to help move some of these units.

Of course I kid. Even if you spent this entire summer locked up in a Transiberian jail cell, odds are at some point you would’ve peeked out for light and laid witness to a plane dragging a “Beatles Remasters 9-9-09” banner across the sky.

So we now lay witness to what is probably the second product-driven post-breakup barrage of Beatlemania. The first would have to be the similar media blitz/general hysteria which surrounded the release of the Anthologies in the early 90’s. Those discs were loaded with alternative versions and demos which had only popped up on bootlegs in years prior. All this hoopla for remixes and ten minute “mini-documentaries” seems a bit overboard. On the other hand, I almost picked up the reissue of Abbey Road at a 7-11 the other day. This would have easily been the coolest purchase I have ever made at a convenience store.

So if you are all caught up in this latest wave of Beatlemania, may I suggest a bit of a dark horse entry – Cheap Trick covering Sgt. Pepper in it’s entirety, accompanied by the New York Philharmonic. The release was pulled from two shows performed live in LA circa 2007, the 40th anniversary of the landmark Fab Four album. It was produced and mixed by Geoff Emerick, who Beatles fans will recognize as the engineer from the original release.

The coolest aspect of a live Sgt. Pepper is that it’s something the Beatles never even attempted to do on their own. By this phase of their career they had retreated from the mania surrounding their live gigs to prosper in the studio, where they would craft albums that would change the world. So when you get a veteran rock band like Cheap Trick, a group that has worshiped at the altar of the Beatles for their entire career, to take on a project like this, well hell, it seems like it actually could work.

And it does. Of course it doesn’t top the original album, but it does give you a taste of what it may have been like live, on a good night. The saving grace of this performance is undoubtedly Cheap Trick’s lead singer, Robin Zander. Somehow Zander’s voice has not aged as ungracefully as his increasingly pudgy body. The man wails on this record, especially on the crown jewel, an ace rendition of “A Day In The Life.” And you Beatles fanatics know the part I’m talking about, that magical, heaping helping, of “Ahhhh Ahhhh Ahhhh’s” after the “somebody spoke and I went into a dream” line.

I’m sure when the Beatles came up with this stunner, they had no intention of trying to replicate it live. Sans backing tracks, this song is a nightmare for a rock band to perform. First off you need an orchestra, and you need an orchestra that can faithfully execute that instrumental freak-out which leads into the alarm clock going off. Of course, you also need an alarm clock. What I’m trying to say here is that there’s a lot more going on than what you would hear in your run of the mill Hannah Montana tune. Perfecting this arrangement, and many others on the album, really takes work. For the band and the orchestra to pull it off as well as they do is impressive in itself.

But the execution of the songs is only half the battle here, the true conquest lies in the performers’ love of the material. Cheap Trick brings their roots as a Midwest bar-band out to shine on this set. Opener “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” is propelled by chords chunky enough to make Steve Jones jealous, and during the final medley, a special add-on of various Beatles tunes, guitarist Rick Nielsen goes to town on the back and forth solos from “The End.” One can imagine a young Nielsen spending hours playing along to this album in his room. These concerts seemed to serve as both the fulfillment of a life-long dream and the ultimate debt of gratitude.

I’m sure it’s no coincidence that this album just happened to come out around the same time as the new wave of Beatles remasters. But don’t feel guilty in falling for a seemingly blatant marketing ploy, as all the proceeds will go towards the eradication of prostate cancer. Cheap Trick will not be lining their pockets with this stunt, they will just be helping to fix a different type of hole.

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