Love Is "Hey Jude" On Repeat
Every week (not true) Stereogum suggests a music book you should read. We like Rob Sheffield's Love Is A Mix Tape a lot. Early in the book (before it gets to the heartbreaking mix tapes) Rob tell us about an April '79 afternoon he and his dad spent with "Hey Jude."
As my dad and I sat around the house one Saturday afternoon, playing Beatles records, we started batting around the idea that it was theoretically possible to loop a version of "Hey Jude" long enough to fill up an entire cassette. All we had to do was press pause and lift the needle every once in a while, and fiddle with the volume knobs. A few hours later, we had a ninety-minute tape of "na na nas," along with many "yeah yeah yeahs" and a few "Judy Judy Judy wows." We listened to the playback, and I could not believe what we had accomplished. This was a new Beatles song that hadn't existed before. It was Something New, as the Beatles would say.That is the longest remix of "Hey Jude." Segue....
I listen to Hey Jude now, and I think two things: I never want to hear this song again, and in 1979, my dad was around the age I am now, and given a Saturday afternoon he could have spent any way he pleased, he chose to spend it with his twelve-year-old song, making this ridiculous little tape. He probably forgot about it the next day. But I didn't.
The shortest has gotta be Media Corti's sixty second entry as part of WFMU's The Sixty Second Song Remix Contest. Head here to hear that and all the current contenders. Sixty seconds of "Fergalicious" is still a couple dozen too many, no? Submit your remix by 2/23! Winner gets a refrigerator magnet.
And since we mentioned Rob ... Anyone watching I'm From Rolling Stone? It's funny! Funny cringe, not funny ha ha. Why are the interns on stage with George Clinton?
Posted at 10:08 AM
Tags: I'm From Rolling Stone | Paul McCartney | Rob Sheffield | The Beatles
a radio station at home looped the outro all day on a Beatles anniversary day (either their arrival in the states, their breakup, or John Lennon's death day.. I can't remember for sure)
Posted by: j at January 29, 2007 12:07 PM | ReplyScore = 0
that must have been annoying when they could have just played a bunch of beatles songs.
Posted by: mike d at January 29, 2007 2:01 PM | ReplyScore = 0
Yes, Paul really kind of overdo it with all those Jude Judy Judy Judy ow-wows, etc.
Posted by: Blu at January 29, 2007 4:29 PM | ReplyScore = 0
There's a great article about Rob, his book and his memories of Charlottesville, Virginia (where most of the book takes place) in Charlottesville's weekly, The Hook.
http://www.readthehook.com/stories/2007/01/25/COVER-Sheffield-E.rtf.aspx
Posted by: Charlottesvillian at January 30, 2007 11:56 PM | ReplyScore = 0