“Beatles Or Stones?” I’m one of those people who is definitely more Rolling Stones than Beatles. That’s not to say there aren’t Fab Four songs or albums I enjoy or even adore (White Album!), but The Stones suit my tastes and aesthetic preferences in music and art much more. The Stones have a classically debaucherous mythos attached to them and their vibe was always darker, nastier and convincingly Satanic compared to their Liverpool rivals. True: The Beatles certainly had their more nefarious moments (“Helter Skelter,” “Happiness is a Warm Gun,” The Butcher Cover and Aleister Crowley's appeance on the Sgt, Peppers' album sleeve), but I’m definitely more “Paint It Black” than “Good Day Sunshine.”
However, some people still believe The Beatles held the keys to the infernal gates of Hell. Certainly several of my teenage Goth-Pop icons saw a dark thread in the Beatles' work (or maybe it was just their genius for unforgettable melodies – those do help bands cross-over!) Siouxsie Sioux’s devotion to the Fab Four turned out two great covers; first, an incendiary and punked-out “Helter Skelter” on the Banshees’ 1978 debut Scream:
...and the band scored one of their biggest International hits with their lush 1983 reading of “Dear Prudence.”
It’s finally chilly in Hollywood. I mean, I still have my French windows open wide, but it’s about as cold as it ever gets, with breezes blowing from my hometown in the north, Nevada City, where loved ones are covered in white blankets of snow. (That’s a metaphor – probably very few of them have bed-sheets constructed of crystalline water ice.)
My friends in Nevada City, Jaime, Alison and Dan made a snowman. I don’t get that pleasure here. I suppose I could make a clumps-of-dying-grass-cigarette-butts-and-dog-feces man, but who has that kind of time? I have a blog to write!
Here's a picture of the snowman my friends made.
The best part will be watching him slowly melt over the next couple weeks.
My choices in music are always influenced by weather. When it’s hot city in the summertime, I’ll gravitate towards artists such as Stephen Malkmus, Thin Lizzy, or Sly & The Family Stone. If it’s a rainy day, you can bet some Siouxsie & The Banshees will be trilling from my stereo. I look out the window and see the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse trampling the Hills with all the fury of Heaven and Hell as they take the stage for a final battle in which every human soul will come to greet its eternal home in either the awesome glory of the Almighty God or the foul depths of Hell as lorded over by the king of wickedness, Satan, and more often than not I’ll play a little Burt Bacharach. Because it’s always a good time for a little Burt.
London's Victoria and Albert Museum has announced that it has bought perhaps the most recognizable logo in all of music at an auction in the U.S. -- the original artwork for The Rolling Stones famous "lips" logo, inspired by the Mick Jagger’s pouty mouth. The museum bought the work for $92,500.
The lips-and-tongue logo was designed by London art student John Pasche in 1970, and first appeared on the inside sleeve of the Sticky Fingers album released the following year. Pasche would go on to design posters for several Rolling Stones tours of the 1970’s, and the promotional sticker for Goats Head Soup plus a couple of single sleeves for the Stones.
According to an article in The Guardian, the idea for the logo came when Pasche, a graduate of the Royal College of Art in London, first met Jagger in the Rolling Stones' offices. “Face to face with him, the first thing you were aware of was the size of his lips and his mouth,” Pasche was quoted as saying.
Pasche added that he would use the money from the auction to send his 11-year-old son to private school. Initially paid just £50 for the logo, later when the Stones copyrighted the design Pasche received a share of the royalties’ rights; eventually he sold his share for a lump sum.
Since his early ‘masterpiece’ Pasche has done considerable design work for the record industry including albums, single sleeves and posters for artists such as Paul McCartney, The Stranglers, The Vapors, David Bowie, Judas Priest, The Who, the Bay City Rollers, the Art of Noise and Jethro Tull.
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Amoeba and the Amoeba Music mark and logo are trademarks of Amoeba Music Inc.
The views and opinions expressed in Amoeblog are those of the individual bloggers and not necessarily those of Amoeba Music.