SOUNDTRACK: LAIBACH-Let It Be (1988).
Because Let It Be doesn’t end with The Beatles. In 1988, Laibach, the Slovenian industrial band covered the entire Let It Be album (except for the title song). Laibach are something of a proto-Rammstein, full of bombast and loud voices, stomping beats and despite the Slovakian heritage, a very Teutonic feel.
Opening with “Get Back,” the song is a stomping industrial march. The lead singer (I have no idea who the members even are, as they don’t say much about themselves on the record). I’ve always enjoyed this version, and I kind of assumed that the whole album would be similarly bombastic.
However, after the bombast of the first song, “Two of Us” opens with a crooning voice singing a long. It’s a nice change. The music is industrial and loud–but the keyboard riff is also cool. and different. Most of the songs are unrecognizable as the original, but I think “Dig a Pony” may be the most unlike the original. The chorus melody is very different and I barely recognized it. The high notes of “because” are done in a low bass spoken word. It’s quite a change.
“Across the Universe” is genuinely pretty with two female singers and a harpsichord. “I Me Mine” has very similar vocals although the music is very different–with strings and stomping drums. “Dig It” is a nonsense song on the original, but Laibach have a fun (if that’s the word) making it more of a real song with lots of shouting. “Maggie Mae” is a folks song that The Beatles recorded. Laibach call it “Maggie Mae” but instead record tradition German songs “Auf der Lüneburger Heide” & “Was gleicht wohl auf Erden.”
“I’ve got a Feeling” is done like a rally. There is cheering and shouting and the lyrics are delivered in a dramatic spoken word (complete with Oh Yeahs). The audience cheers and responds. After nearly 4 minutes, the cheering continues, but they throw in a steel drum melody of “The Long and Winding Road” (I wondered how they would handle that pretty song).
I don’t really like the original of “1 after 909” but I like the way this one is done. It’s very heavy and rocking with some crazy guitar solos and a refrain of “Smoke on the Water.” “For You Blue” is transformed into an stomping synth version with the vocal melody popping up during the synth line. After 4 minutes of the song, there’s a circus-like rendition of the melody to end the disc.
This is a vastly different rendition of the Beatles album, one that many people will find unpleasant, but I actually knew this version before the original and it will always be fun to me. It’s also interesting how 20 years later, Rammstein would become very successful performing a very similar style of music.
[READ: February 10, 2015] The First World War A|Z
Sarah and I had recently begin watching Downton Abbey (I know, only four years late). During the season that focuses on World War I, I realized that I was woefully ignorant about details of this war. I’m also surprised there hasn’t been more made of its centennial–I’m sure a bigger deal was made in Britain. At the same time, I saw this book at work and it seemed like a good way for me to fill in the gaps.
I am amused and confused that the subtitle says “from assassination to zeppelin” when in fact it is actually from “ace to zeppelin” but I guess assassination is more catchy?
Anyhow, this book was put together by the Imperial War Museum, the British Museum which was founded while the war was underway–such was the significance and unprecedented nature of the war that it was deemed worthy of having a museum while it was still going on.
This book is basically a tiny encyclopedia about the war written in a imaginable digest sized book. It’s only 178 pages, so it is perfect for people who want to learn some details without getting terribly bogged down in the trenches (sorry) of the detail.I was happy to learn that I was not as woefully ignorant as I feared. But there was plenty that I didn’t know.
And some of that was simply interesting facts about technology. Like that the Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk in 1903 and yet by 1918 civilians had been bombed by airplanes. Or that U boats snuck up on people but agreed to pop up to warn victims before they destroyed them. And even how tanks came about.
The Allies in the War were quite numerous–it’s somewhat surprising how long the war lasted: Britain, France, Russia, Japan, Serbia, Montenegro, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Greece and eventually the United States. I also learned more about the Eastern Front. I think of WWI as being all about the Western Front so it’s hard to imagine that there was another part of the war being fought in another part of the world!
I learned some facts about Lawrence of Arabia and the Red Baron and even Mata Hari. I also learned about the Zimmermann telegram–which I had never heard about before, and which is a pretty important part of the United States’ decision to enter the war.
I also learned some real details about the devastation of the war. Like the Pals program. The Pals program was set up to encourage people from the same village or town to enlist together so that they could fight together–side by side with your pals. But in a small Lancashire town, 700 men signed up and were all sent to the front. 585 of them were killed… in the first 20 minutes of battle. Jesus!
I finally learned where the phrases “blighty” and “tommy” come from, and I have more of an understanding of why poppies are the symbol of veterans
The one thing that the book failed to do for me was to give me a full explanation of how the war started. I understand that the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand was the catalyst, but it also seemed like Germany was looking to star something on its own. I would have also liked a bit more about the trenches, which I find fascinating and confusing–did they really just dig out 8 foot trenches for miles?
But if I have one real complaint about the book it is that I would have loved to see some maps–it’s rally hard to imagine all of this without visuals (some visuals of the planes and tanks and things wold have been very helpful as well). I realize that this book is not meant to be encyclopedic (and that these images are available elsewhere), but since it was made my the IWM, I’m sure they have access to enough pictures to really make this volume even more interesting.
But that’s a minor quibble. The book is really quite comprehensive and I feel much more versed in WWI, and of course I’m more depressed because of it.
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