Meet The Beastles - DJ BC Interview

One of my favourite musical discoveries of 2013 is the Beastie Boys/Beatles mashups created by Atlanta based DJ BC. His 3 albums DJ BC Presents The Beastles, Let It Beast and Ill Submarine never fail to bring a smile to my face. I had a quick chat to the fifth (should that be eighth?) Beastle -

Who are you? Introduce yourself!

I'm Bob Cronin, a mashup producer, DJ and Dad. I work with A+D and the Bootie Mashup Team International, and am founder of Bootie Boston and Bootie ATL mashup parties.

How long have you been Djing/creating mashups?

Since about 1995. I started out doing them using a 4-track and a guitar digital delay pedal as a sampler/looper.

You're very prolific and cover a lot of artists but The Beatles (and the Beastie Boys) seem to have a special place in your heart. Any particular reason?

Two of my favourite bands. However, at this point [after 3 albums], its time for other things. I've done enough B-Boys and Beatles mashups.

You put the Beastles albums up and them had to take them down. Was that pressure from Apple, Grand Royal or both?

Various forces. EMI. Universal. RIAA. You name it, they probably have threatened me.

The Beatles have 'sampled' or quoted other people's music, yet retain tight control over their own catalogue. Is their attitude to legal protection a little hypocritical?

The artists themselves have very little to do with the threats. Paul is OK with mashups. I believe John was OK with sampling as well, he was always somewhat avant garde. I am sure attitudes evolved over time. The threats are really based on record companies attempts to control a valuable property, it has nothing to do with art or integrity or anything like that. It's purely a financial motivation.

On your Body Movin'/The Inner Light mashup, Belly Movin', I love the way you moved the beat. “LET me get some action” falls on the one in the original, but on Belly Movin' it falls on the two creating a whole new feel. Accidental or deliberate?

That was accidental, but I liked it and kept it.

Do you think of mashups as new piece of music, cover versions or does it depend on a case by case basis?

It's not a cover, its not a new version, it's a mashup, which is a mashup.

What is the process for deciding which songs to mash up – is it just a matter of matching keys and tempos?

Those things, and also musical content, and vibe, and meaning. Really its a matter of trial and error and tons of fine-tuning.

What do you think of Giles Martin's mashups for `Cirque Du Soleil (The Love Album)?

I thought it was cool that they embraced the idea but they are not really mashups per say, there is no genre clash or artist clash there. They are more like Beatles megamixes. Which is cool, I thought he did a pretty good job with that. (even though I find Cirque totally annoying - it's meaningless phony performance art on trampolines, a sort of "Disney On Ice" for adults).

What's your favourite Beastles track?

They are all my children. But I like the new album best of the three.

My personal faves are Let It Beast, Tripper Trouble and the aforementioned Belly Movin'. But why not just download the first two albums here and Ill Submarine here? (click on the big yellow "Download" near the bottom of the page).

Find out more about Bob here.

The Band Who...Stated Their Name Clearly For The Record

Pop Quiz! What do all the following songs have in common?

Unchained Melody - The Righteous Brothers
Space Oddity – David Bowie
Sympathy For The Devil – Rolling Stones
The Weight - The Band
Paranoid – Black Sabbath
Immigrant Song – Led Zeppelin
Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen
Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana
She Sells Sanctuary – The Cult
Song 2 – Blur
Enter Sandman - Metallica
Paranoid Android – Radiohead
The Scientist – Coldplay

Answer: None of the titles listed above appear anywhere in the lyrics.

Some bands are serial offenders, taking 'Title Avoidance Syndrome' to the extreme, like My Chemical Romance

You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us In Prison
Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough For The Two Of Us
It's Not A Fashion Statement, It's A F***ing Deathwish

or employing it in a tasteful minimalist way like U2

Bad
Wire
Gone
Exit

But these bands are exceptions. One of the most foundational principles for making a song memorable is combining the title with a hooky melody and repeating it enough times for it to worm it's way into your subconscious. Now perhaps if your chorus lyrics are

“I need your love, I need your love, God speed your love to me”

“Woo hoo, well I feel heavy metal”

or even

“Argh argh aaaaaaaaargh....ARGH”*

you might be wise to write something else on the label. But successful songs with obscure titles are a rarity, if for no other reason than people can't buy a record if they have no idea what it's called. The Beatles understood this principle.


Of 211 tracks released by the Beatles, 
199 feature the title prominently.


Of the 12 exceptions, 1 is an instrumental (Flying, the incidental music from Magical Mystery Tour). Five more feature fragments of the title, but not the whole -

Revolution 9 - Number 9, number 9
The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill - hey Bungalow Bill, what did you kill?
She Said She Said - She said, I know what it's like to be dead
Love You To - I'll make love to you, if you want me to
Wild Honey Pie - (the only title that's longer than the lyrics) Honey pie, honey pie

This leaves a grand total of 6 songs that never mention the title

For You Blue
The Inner Light
A Day In The Life
The Ballad Of John And Yoko
Tomorrow Never Knows
Yer Blues

They are almost all album tracks (apart from Ballad Of.., and b-side, The Inner Light). But what's most interesting about this list is that every one is a Lennon or Harrison song. There is not one genuine McCartney song among them**.

If you want to understand Paul's success as a commercial pop writer this is one small, but undeniable, key.

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*Unchained Melody (The Righteous Brothers), Song 2 (Blur) and Immigrant Song (Led Zeppelin) respectively.

**McCartney was a co-writer on Flying, and let's be honest Wild Honey Pie is a weird outtake rather than a song in any traditional understanding of the word.



Read more about the Band Who...

...Kept Expanding
...Lived Outside
...Needed No Introduction
...Were Men Of Few Words

The Band Who ... Lived Outside

In my recent guest post for songwriting scene I let slip the remarkable fact that the very melodic and accessible Beatles only stayed in key for a remarkable 22 songs out of 186. Well I spoke too soon. I was looking primarily at chord progressions. When I factored in the actual vocal melody the number dropped to an incredible 16!

That right,

16 out of 186.

Here’s the list (with primary authors) followed by a breakdown and some ‘also rans’.

The 16 in key songs

All Together Now - M
Dig It - LMHS
Don’t Let Me Down - L
It’s All Too Much - H
Long Long Long – H
Love You To - H
Misery - LM
Not a Second Time - LM
Paperback Writer - M
Rain - L
She Said She Said - L
Thank You Girl - LM
The Inner Light - H
Tomorrow Never Knows - L
Yellow Submarine - M


The first thing that stands out to me is that percentage-wise Harrison (and Starr!) are over represented - I think. (Help me out with the maths someone!). 4 Harrison tunes (It’s All Too Much, Long Long Long, Love You To, The Inner Light) might not seem a lot but he only contributed 21 (and a quarter!) songs in 7 years).

There are 2 kids songs (All Together Now, Yellow Submarine), 1 throwaway track (Dig It) and 3 ‘Indian’ songs (Love You To, The Inner Light, Tomorrow Never Knows).

There's more. Don't assume 'in key' means in the major or minor scale. Paperback Writer, Rain, She Said She Said, The Inner Light, Tomorrow Never Knows are in the Mixolydian mode throughout and Love You To is built exclusively on the Dorian mode.

Are You Sure?

If you’re surprised about Rain (which sounds major but for McCartney’s bassline) and Love You To (which sounds Mixolydian) – so was I!

Both song mess with your head by omitting a note, but tricking you into thinking you've heard it. By leaving out the 3rd but using the major 6th, Harrison cons you into thinking you’ve heard the major 3rd as well. Rain’s chord progression of G C D5 has you mentally filling in the missing F# (in the D chord) simply because you’ve heard that progression a million times.

And The Runners Up Are...

And I Love Her stays in key for most of it’s length but blows it with a key change from E to F and then a weird final chord.
Goodnight loses it in the instrumental interlude (which to be fair may be arranger George Martin’s work)
In Spite Of All The Danger stays in key, but also stayed unreleased till Anthology.
I’ve Just Seen A Face would have made the list but for a G natural in the guitar intro.

2 more would have made the list but for bluesifying the melody, (Ticket 22) namely, Starr’s Don’t Pass Me By and the harmonica opening of Love Me Do.

So what?

Let's Get Lost

There’s no getting away from it. The Beatles songwriting career was one long mission to escape from the straight-jacket tonality of major and minor scales (whether they were conscious of it or not).

Think I’m making something out of nothing? Here’s your assignment. Out of your next 18 songs, only 1 of them can be in a major or minor scale.

Let me know how you get on!

Related post: The band who needed no introduction

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