Since I first aired my interpretation of the Beatles' Carnival of Light several comments by fans, newspaper & Wikipedia articles have stated I used samples of actual Beatle tracks to create the song above. That is completely false and without insight.
On November 16th 2008 I created a parody of the whole Carnival of Light experience. What I borrowed was song outlines keeping in harmony with United States Copyright law.
My parody was designed to make fun of what I call the Beatle Police. These are overzealous fans who correct other Beatle fans like they created a felony if they did not know some obscure Beatle fact. I'm sure everyone has met one. With all the misinformation out there about the Beatles it only makes matters worse. Why I've even seen instances were Beatle Police argued with Paul McCartney about his own life. He lived his life they studied it and or read countless books/took college courses etc etc. So as soon as I titled my video The Beatles Carnival of Light? Beatle Bootleg...then ended it abruptly 3 minutes later with "probably not" I stimulated a public debate. This drove the Beatle Police crazy. That was my intention to make fun of them.
The other thing I was making fun of was the Beatles themselves who refused to release the track. They released all sorts of bad demos but this didn't make the cut because of sibling rivalry. George Harrison reinvented himself with Cloud Nine and the Traveling Wilburies. Meanwhile Paul was struggling in some ways but still considered himself to be the most important Beatle alive. There was really no other reason other than power struggle why George would not allow the track. He was the one who brought in all exotic instruments. Surely he was open to experimentation. I mean just look at that perm he got in the late 70's. So with life being so short, why not release it? Paul and John used to tell George he could only have 1 song..now George had the power to tell Paul he could have none.
The way I made fun of this silly ego trip was by creating sonic chaos. I was trying to create the sound of 2 wild animals fighting. You can hear them roar at each other. That was Paul & George.
I think in many ways they drifted a part over the years. Just look at Paul at the Concert for George. He never looked so out of place. Now George is gone which makes the fight even more ridiculous. He no doubt told his wife no to COL.
Now I had to poke a little fun at Paul McCartney as well. He was lobbying to have this avant garde song released. It was very much a bohemian adventure of free form art. This is all fine and dandy but I just have a difficult time relating to a billionaire bohemian. So I borrowed a little bohemian Beatle influence for the song's structure. In no way did I intend to replace any Beatle track. I was more interested in symbolism.
My song is so chaotic it is naturally transformative. It's decidedly different from the Beatles Carnival of Light. I made fun of the minimalism a bit but also to distinguish my song from theirs. I resisted copying the readily available description of the real COL. Instead I tried to create something that sounded as if it could be but wasn't.
The title Carnival of Light was necessary because it is an instrumental and one requirement for a parody is you must identify what you're making fun of. It's a complex parody but I feel that Beatle fans are sophisticated enough to understand.
Initially I only intended it for streaming broadcast. Since that time Beatle Bootleggers have distributed my song across numerous file sharing networks as well as pressed actual compact discs. So a few weeks ago I made my song available on Itunes and other large mp3 online warehouses. I did have it on a few smaller mp3 sites but there wasn't much of a push on my part to distribute it. I feel the need to push the song now even if no one downloads it just to identify the track as mine. As of right now Beatle fans/file sharers believe my song to be cut up pieces of Beatle tracks.
Again actual Beatle samples were never used. I used similar instruments available at the time the Beatles recorded Penny Lane. The drums are not from Strawberry field. The bass line is loosely based on Michelle but it is not Michelle(why even Paul McCartney when he wrote Michelle was doing it as a joke. He was at an art school party and they were listening to French folk music. So he began to mimic the musical style. All the songs sounded alike. Most of the other s sounds I created are so distorted, stretched, played backwards, cut up into pieces etc they relate to nothing from the Beatles.
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