Beatallica - "The Thing That Should Not Let it Be" from the Web Download Garage Dayz Nite

Back in '04, it seemed worth a flyer, anyhow.

Who don't love the Beatles? And I like SOME rap, even if they'd all call it old school by now.

So, yeah, I thought, what the fuck, let's download the Danger Mouse Grey Album, this amalgamation of the Beatles and some rapper I'd not been previously familiar with named Jay-Z, this "mashup" thing that everyone seems to be talking about as 2004 ripens and matures . . . .

If I'd liked it, I could have moved on to mashups that combined Jay-Z's a cappella rhymes with the music of Weezer, or even, my goodness, the mind boggles, Pavement.

Well, I didn't move on because I didn't like it. I didn't think The Grey Album was silly, not really, and I didn't think it was stupid. But I definitely didn't get it. I didn't--and still don't--understand why anyone would listen to Beatles tracks with these sludgy rhymes placed on top, no matter how cleverly it might have been done, when the originals were just fine.

I guess what it is, I thought that maybe The Grey Album would help me get into Jay-Z, but the way the deal works, is, you've got to already be into Jay-Z to like The Grey Album.

So I still haven't heard The Slack Album, probably never will.

But at the very least, I became familiar with the concept of the mashup, and when during a slow patch at work one day, I ran across the Beatallica article at Wikipedia, I was already primed.

Nothing not to like, right? Well, except for "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La Da" and Load, but let me tell you: in the main, I am rock solid with Beatallica's sources. Plus, they're a band I could conceivably go and see, and none of the band members wears a giant mouse costume.

Like Danger Mouse, Beatallica received some Cease and Desist letters from Sony/AMG, the loveable caretakers of The Beatles catalog. Although some sort of settlement was reached (brokered apparently by the members of Metallica!) that has since allowed Beatallica to sell their music, perhaps that's why the mashup hasn't grown in popularity since its 2004 heyday. No-one wants to risk getting sued by a multibillion dollar conglomerate.

A shame really, because there's so much in the mashup field that's yet to be accomplished. Why, I myself happen to have a small list of ideas, culled from the La Historia de la Musica Rock playlists, just waiting for the properly motivated DJing talent to actualize them into the classics they would surely become.

Somebody get on these, OK?

"Another Green Hell World" -- Brian Eno & The Misfits, together at last

"Ashtray Heart Cooks Brain" -- Captain Beefheart & Modest Mouse

"Beautiful World of Pain" -- Devo & Cream

"Birdhouse in Your Soul Sauce" -- They Might Be Giants & Cal Tjader

"Black Steel in the Hour of Chaosmongers" -- Public Enemy & Voivod

"BYOB True To Your School" -- System of a Down & The Beach Boys

"Drinking and Driving Me Backwards" -- Black Flag & Eno

"Dreamworld Up My Ass" -- Midnight Oil & The Circle Jerks

"Good Mourning, Black Captain" -- Megadeth & Slint

"Fists of Love Rollercoaster" -- Big Black & The Ohio Players, biotch.

"Harold of the Rocks Off" -- Primus & The Rolling Stones

"Hit the Plane Down by the River" -- Pavement & Neil Young

"Infinite Space Cowboy" -- Emerson Lake & Palmer/Steve Miller Band

"I'm Five Years Ahead of my Maritime" -- The Third Bardo & Isis

"It's The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel The Burning Sun)"
     -- REM & Crowbar

"Ma-Ma-Ma-Bel Air" -- ELO & Can

"Remember Tomorrow Never Knows" -- Iron Maiden & The Beatles

"Ring of Fire Engine Passing With Bells Clanging"
     -- Johnny Cash & The Soft Machine

"Sex Bomb Repeat Sex Bomb" -- Ted Leo & Flipper

"Ted Just Admit It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train To Cry"
     -- Jane's Addiction & Bob Dylan

Beatallica - 05 - The Thing That Should Not Let It Be.mp3

128 kbps mp3, up for six weeks (or more) (right click and save as target)

File under: Bigger Than Cthulhu