BEATLE ROCK BAND BOLLOCK

The sound of one hand rocking, and counting

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OK, so the Woodstock 40th any weekend, The New York Times Sunday Magazine let loose with a multi-page treatise on the Beatles Rock Band computer game, set for a Sept. 9 release.

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Now, I am no not some burned out, freaked out hippy who is PC illiterate and who longs for the greasy days of scratchy vinyl, but I am yes, anti-bullshit. So despite the thousands of words given over to the Fabs' RB trivia in a well-written article by Daniel Rodish, I remain, and am unmoved by the hype.

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In fact, when true Beatle fans find out that the gamers have taken

a few liberties with certain Fab facts, I fear the dogs of minutia will be savagely released.

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For according to Rodish's piece, the sanctity of the 1965 Shea Stadium concert will be slipped a musical Macca mickey.

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It seems that-for reasons unstated, although I have my suspions-I'm Looking Through You has been artificially inseminated into the Shea gig, while another live show from Budokan uses a studio version of Paperback Writer, except for a brief snippet.

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The music arranger for the Beatles Rock Band, Giles Martin, says that the game should be considered a "fantasy version" of the Beatles times, which in the game spans from The Cavern in 1962 to the Apple HQ rooftop in Jan. 1969.

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Apparently the brainwave of and at the urging of George Harrison's youngest son, Beatle Rock Band will not include any of the Abbey Road studio dramas, although (benign) studio chatter will be heard.

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But, as John Lennon so aptly noted in 1971, "those freaks" out there will be hard at work picking apart all of the less than factual stuff on BRB, and the full Internet forum wank will for surely be on.

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Now while the Times' piece seems to roll with the Apple party line that the new game is to "educate" the younger lumpen proletariat about Beatle music, and is an adjunct to the CD remasters due on the same day, my take would be that that claim is about as sincere as the story behind Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. (i.e., LSD had nuthin' to do with it.)

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If it looks like a cash grab and smells like a cash grab, it's a CASH GRAB!

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And if this game ain't a cash grab, then Lucy was really for real even if nothing is real. Really.

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END NOTE:

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According to the Times' story, the first 3 Beatle albums to be made available via download will be Revolver, Sgt. P, and Abbey Road. No date given fro release.