In 2004, Danger Mouse released The Grey Album which layered the rapper Jay-Z’s The Black Album on top of The Beatles’ White Album. Black and white makes grey.
Now, on YouTube, you can find The Grey Video, which experimentally brings Danger Mouse’s concept to video. The video, created by two Swiss directors, meshes clips from The Beatles’ film A Hard Day’s Night with footage of Jay‑Z performing. Watch it below, and get more info on The Grey Album here. Also check our collection of MP3 Music Blogs.
In 2006, he released No Direction Home, an acclaimed documentary on Bob Dylan (long after he filmed his first rockumentary, The Last Waltz in 1978). Next April, he’s set to release another documentary on The Rolling Stones, tentatively called Shine a Light. (Watch the already released trailer below.) And now he has just agreed to direct a film about George Harrison. The movie, being made with the support of Harrison’s family, will cover his time with the Beatles, his music and film career thereafter, and Harrison’s spiritual engagement with Eastern religion. Reportedly, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr may also contribute to the making of the film. It won’t be out for a few good years. In the meantime, check out our recent piece, The Beatles: Podcasts from Yesterday.
Mark October 1 on your calendar. That’s when Bob Dylan will release a new box set of his “greatest songs.” Now, cut over to the website designed to market the album, and you’ll find a couple notable pieces of video. First up, you can watch the video that accompanies Mark Ronson’s remixing of “Most Likely You Will Go Your Way (& I’ll Go Mine).” (Watch it on the website here or on YouTube here.) It’s apparently the first time Dylan has allowed a remix of any of his songs, and the song has been getting some airplay this week.
And then there is this video concept. Back in 1967, D. A. Pennebaker released Don’t Look Back, a well-known documentary that covered Dylan’s first tour of England in 1965. The opening segment of the film has Dylan standing in an alley, flipping through cards inscribed with lyrics from Subterranean Homesick Blues. (Also the beat poet Allen Ginsberg looms in the background. We’ve included the original video below.) Now, I’m mentioning this because the aforementioned website lets you re-work this video segment. Click here and you can re-write the cards that Dylan flips through, and then watch your edited version. It’s another form of re-mixing, I guess.
at least according to Rolling Stone. (Get the list here). Yes, these lists are always highly subjective. But if I were the arbiter of musical taste, I’d pick many of the same, so here it is.
Below we have “R.E.M. Live, recorded on the Around the World Tour, which promoted Around the Sun, a studio album from 2004. It is to be released October 16.” (Thanks to Justin for the clarification.)
Quick fyi: Bruce Springsteen’s next album, Magic, will be released on October 2. To whet appetites, the lead single, “Radio Nowhere,” has been released. You can download the mp3 here. (PC users, right click ‘save target as’; Mac users, control and click, then Download Linked File.) To watch the free music video of the single, just click here and scroll down. Finally, here are the newly announced dates for Springsteen’s upcoming tour.
We’re taking you back to 1980, to the evening when John Lennon was shot in New York City. This sound file lets you listen in on what New Yorkers heard that evening — December 8 — as they switched from one radio station to another. The event was covered across the radio dial, and you hear the news media starting to piece together exactly what happened at the Dakota. This recording was put online by Beware of the Blog, which we indexed in our list of MP3 Music Blogs.
OnClassical.com has just relaunched its website, and you may want to give a look. If you don’t already know about it, OnClassical is an independent classical music label based in Italy that features internationally-acclaimed artists. They offer a “maniacally high sound level” and produce their recordings without sharing profits with intermediaries … which stands to benefit artists and consumers. Their audio is DRM-free and, what is more, their albums can be entirely previewed for free under a Creative Commons license (read more here).
For classical music (free Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, etc.) feel free to peruse our Music Podcast Collection.
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