The Beatles and their influence on Queen

The Beatles were one of the largest influences on not only rock and roll, but music as a whole. The Beatles pioneered several of the most important recording techniques ever, and in that is looping. In their song, "Tomorrow Never Knows" they record one phrase of Ringo's playing and loop it throughout their entire song. One band who uses this technique is the 1970's band Queen. Queen, led by Freddie Mercury, uses looping in many of their works, almost to a point of excess. One really good example of this is "The Prophet's Song" from the album, A Night at the Opera. In this, Freddie goes a cappella for the middle portion of the song, in which he loops his on vocals over and over again, singing in descending cadences with himself. This produces a very interesting effect on the overall tone of the song, as it comes back with guitar, drums and backing vocals. This song, and many of Queen's other songs would be very different (or just not exist) had The Beatles never used this technique of recording.

Above Us Only Sky: Movie Review

I started watching this documentary late on Saturday night, and I was quickly taken from my bedroom into Tittenhurst Park in the late 1960s. The movie depicted John and Yoko's estate, their insanely large English mansion with a garden big enough to explore for a whole lifetime. To me, it seemed odd to see John outside of the studio without the other Beatles at first, but after a couple minutes it became clear that his life now was more peaceful and relaxed, which was probably how he wanted it. The footage, of him in his own studio or rowing through his own pond on the grounds, was like watching John transform from John Lennon of the Beatles into just John. It was magical, in a sense, to watch John and Yoko as they interacted and sort of became one with each other. The main focus of the movie, I would say, was the creation of the song imagine. From the moment John played the song, everyone knew it was, and would be for a long time, a huge hit. Yoko said in the movie she felt as though she met John so that Imagine could come into existence. Although I have always personally loved the song, this movie made me realize the total impact of it considering the huge cultural movement for peace. The song itself became almost a manifesto or symbol of the movement. It was beautiful watching John and Yoko come together to create this piece, one that has remained relevant and timeless ever since its creation, and this movie did a great job of explaining just a small portion of their story.