"Just because you can do something, it
doesn't mean you should"; my mother used to say that, and as I've moved
through life it's turned out to be pretty sound advice. My mother's voice came
to mind when I picked this up from the crate too; obviously, a military band
can play Lennon & McCartney songs, but whether they should play
them is a different question entirely.
I suppose that question would be "why would they want to"? Maybe as an attempt for a military band to slough off its stuffy aura and give themselves a kool makeover to get the kidz on board perhaps? Maybe, but if the sleeve is anything to go by then if this was an attempt to launch that particular boat then the vessel sank in the harbour.
Instead of a cover shot of the usual seventies saucepot in her skimpies we get a no nonsense portrait of Major DV Fanshawe on his horse Thor* heading up the steps of an important looking building, no doubt on his way to sign important papers dealing with national security. The back cover doesn't play it for laughs either, being little more than text that amounts to a potted history of The Band of the Royal Military College and Capt. Derek N Taylor's CV. Why anyone who didn't already know this would be interested in such information is a mystery to me, but it all goes to suggest that the brief given to the people behind this was not one based around getting the party started.
To start with the tracklist; I don't know why these particular songs were chosen from The Beatles' catalogue or if they naturally lend themselves to a military band context, but in fairness they haven't simply been transcribed for wind and percussion. Some attempt has been made to set them in original arrangements. Alas though, it doesn't sound like they were arranged by anyone with any love, sympathy or understanding of the source material. Rather, they sound like the output of a soldier following orders and each has been given a definite military makeover - you could imagine marching into battle or raising a flag and saluting it with almost any of these parping away in the background.
What this means is that even though I assume this album was meant to be filed under 'easy listening', it has completely the opposite effect on me. The arrangements here are not smooth, they're unnecessarily busy and messy and the band's playing is harsh, meaning that hearing tunes I hitherto knew as well as my own name now feel as strange as finding a character from a favourite soap opera suddenly being played by a different actor; it just leaves me on edge. Once familiar melodies are ridden over roughshod by heavy duty brass and drums that lay emphasis where I least expected it, and where that happens it's as jarring as eating chocolate but unexpectedly biting into a rogue piece of the foil wrapping.
There are some spectacular own goals here too; I can imagine 'Yesterday' sounding mournful when played on a solo trumpet with a spare backing, but the overly fussy and brash arrangement here only swamps McCartney's simple melody in too much noise. Similarly, someone could have had a busman's holiday with the horn solo on 'Penny Lane', but instead it's largely ignored and buried in other business that's nowhere near as interesting.
Maybe it's just the unfamiliarity of it all that's getting to me, and maybe I could get used to them if I persevered, but then I ask myself "why should I go to the bother when I've got 'Rubber Soul' and 'Revolver' to listen to"? And to that question there's no other answer but "why indeed"? I think to properly enjoy this you'd need to be a) an ardent fan of military bands and b) an ardent non-fan of The Beatles, and I personally have to answer both of these the 'wrong' way. All of which is a roundabout way of me saying I do not like this record. At all.
* I know this because a note on the back cover tells me so - in all things military, it's nothing but thorough.
I suppose that question would be "why would they want to"? Maybe as an attempt for a military band to slough off its stuffy aura and give themselves a kool makeover to get the kidz on board perhaps? Maybe, but if the sleeve is anything to go by then if this was an attempt to launch that particular boat then the vessel sank in the harbour.
Instead of a cover shot of the usual seventies saucepot in her skimpies we get a no nonsense portrait of Major DV Fanshawe on his horse Thor* heading up the steps of an important looking building, no doubt on his way to sign important papers dealing with national security. The back cover doesn't play it for laughs either, being little more than text that amounts to a potted history of The Band of the Royal Military College and Capt. Derek N Taylor's CV. Why anyone who didn't already know this would be interested in such information is a mystery to me, but it all goes to suggest that the brief given to the people behind this was not one based around getting the party started.
To start with the tracklist; I don't know why these particular songs were chosen from The Beatles' catalogue or if they naturally lend themselves to a military band context, but in fairness they haven't simply been transcribed for wind and percussion. Some attempt has been made to set them in original arrangements. Alas though, it doesn't sound like they were arranged by anyone with any love, sympathy or understanding of the source material. Rather, they sound like the output of a soldier following orders and each has been given a definite military makeover - you could imagine marching into battle or raising a flag and saluting it with almost any of these parping away in the background.
What this means is that even though I assume this album was meant to be filed under 'easy listening', it has completely the opposite effect on me. The arrangements here are not smooth, they're unnecessarily busy and messy and the band's playing is harsh, meaning that hearing tunes I hitherto knew as well as my own name now feel as strange as finding a character from a favourite soap opera suddenly being played by a different actor; it just leaves me on edge. Once familiar melodies are ridden over roughshod by heavy duty brass and drums that lay emphasis where I least expected it, and where that happens it's as jarring as eating chocolate but unexpectedly biting into a rogue piece of the foil wrapping.
There are some spectacular own goals here too; I can imagine 'Yesterday' sounding mournful when played on a solo trumpet with a spare backing, but the overly fussy and brash arrangement here only swamps McCartney's simple melody in too much noise. Similarly, someone could have had a busman's holiday with the horn solo on 'Penny Lane', but instead it's largely ignored and buried in other business that's nowhere near as interesting.
Maybe it's just the unfamiliarity of it all that's getting to me, and maybe I could get used to them if I persevered, but then I ask myself "why should I go to the bother when I've got 'Rubber Soul' and 'Revolver' to listen to"? And to that question there's no other answer but "why indeed"? I think to properly enjoy this you'd need to be a) an ardent fan of military bands and b) an ardent non-fan of The Beatles, and I personally have to answer both of these the 'wrong' way. All of which is a roundabout way of me saying I do not like this record. At all.
* I know this because a note on the back cover tells me so - in all things military, it's nothing but thorough.
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