SPY VIBE

JASON'S SONG/FILM ON YOUTUBE

Spy Vibe Jason's winning song/film project with the Plastic Ono Band is now listed on Yoko Ono's YouTube Favorites. The visuals are black and white, experimental scenes of ocean creatures, but I think readers may enjoy the Lounge/Jazz approach of the music. You can read more about the project here. Before creating Spy Vibe, I have been composing music and making films for the international festival circuit. My previous film, I Was A Dancer -filmed in Japan- was short-listed for the Sundance Film Festival and screened around the world. Being a lifetime fan of 1960s revolutionary artists like Ono and The Beatles, I feel thrilled and blessed to have had a chance to collaborate with the Plastic Ono Band and to share the results. Thanks for checking it out!

JASON WINS REMIX COMPETITION

During the flurry of Beatles and Mod style-related posts in the fall, Spy Vibe announced that Yoko Ono released an exciting and richly artistic album with the Plastic Ono Band. Members included Sean Lennon, Yuka Honda, and Cornelius. The band, now on a US tour, held a remix competition in November for their song, The Sun is Down. Music has always been a big part of my life, including remixing, songwriting, guitar & bass, film scores, and many spy-sampled lounge tunes. I jumped at the chance to collaborate with these guys! Yoko provided a handful of vocal clips. It was up to the remixers/composers to interpret as we wished. I planned a number of solutions, but had a busy fall as Spy Vibers will know. In the end I completed a lounge/jazz song- which was chosen as one of the 20 winners of the competition! When I'm not teaching and writing films, fiction, and comics, I'm busy making short films. With my song on the award list, I made an experimental film to promote the track. See it here on YouTube. Remembering John Lennon's nickname for Yoko, Ocean Child, I shot black & white footage of dancing sea horses, jelly fish, and a dolphin on my iPhone. The film is dedicated to my brothers-in-film Kousuke Ono, Michele Civetta, and Jack Criddle. No stealthy spies or mini skirts in this one, but I hope Spy Vibers will check it out. More news about Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band at Yoko's website Imagine Peace. Information about Jason's films and projects at jasonwhiton.com.

REMEMBERING JOHN LENNON

YELLOW SUB SAILS AGAIN

Variety reports that Robert Zemeckis is brokering a deal with Disney and Apple to remake Yellow Submarine with 3D motion capture technology, and that Disney is working on "a complicated rights deal" that would clear 16 Beatles tunes for use in the film. Zemeckis made the Beatles-related film I Wanna Hold Your Hand in 1978 (which I loved as a thirteen year old Beatles fan). The storyline of the original Yellow Submarine, directed by George Dunning, was set in Pepperland, an undersea paradise protected by Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. When the band is captured by the music-hating Blue Meanies, a soldier is sent to Liverpool to fetch the Fab Four, who hop in the submarine and sail to the rescue. The film traces their odessey to strange places (the Sea of Holes, the Sea of Time, etc), where they meet fantastic characters and monsters. Kind of like a Fab Dirty Dozen, they eventually infiltrate Pepperland, steal instruments from the center of the Blue Meanie's encampment - like a Resistance group might raid a munitions depot - and save the day with music and love. It's a great message in a cool 1960s, surreal setting. I would be weary of a re-envisioning of the film, but something along the lines of the 3D Nightmare Before Christmas project could be quite fun to see.

In a related article from Time (July 23, 2009), Richard Lacayo pays tribute to designer Heinz Edelmann: Heinz Edelmann, the German graphic artist who was art director of the animated Beatles film Yellow Submarine, died this week in Stuttgart at 75. Oddly it was only a few weeks ago, while I was writing about the James Ensor show at MoMA, that I had been thinking about that movie and the whole question of how pop culture influences travel back in forth in art.

In his graphic work and in some of his paintings, Ensor like to draw on cartoonish illustration styles of the late 19th century. That helps to account for the manic draughtmanship of his masterpiece, Christ's Entry Into Brussels in 1889. It's a painting that has always made me think about the mad street riots that break out on South Park every so often, all those jerkily gesticulating townfolk. I wondered if the South Park guys ever consciously drew on it, or if for them it was just one more part of the primordial ooze of imagery we all have in our heads.

Which brought me back to Yellow Submarine. One thing that struck me when I first encountered it as a teenager in 1968 was the way it had absorbed and blended a whole range of artists and graphic styles I was only just discovering — Aubrey Beardsley prints, the little monsters in Hieronymous Bosch, the French illustrators who created that Victorian high tech look for Jules Verne's novels, Tenniel's illustrations for the Alice books. It was a lot to look at and it made me realize how historic styles could have a lot of juice in them.

It's often said that Edelmann became a big influence on Terry Gilliam's animations for Monty Python. What he didn't do was a spend a lifetime turning out Yellow Submarine imitations, and so avoided the Peter Max formula trap. It may be that he only produced one truly lasting work, but it's a doozy.

ABBEY ROAD & BEN SHERMAN

Forty years ago on Saturday, one of the pop world's most infamous and imitated album covers was shot in a little side street in north London. The idea for the cover of the Beatles’ Abbey Road album was initially to call it Everest, after the favourite brand of cigarettes smoked by their engineer Geoff Emerik. Then the thought of doing a Himalayan cover helped kill the idea, and instead they considered doing the shoot closer to home. “There's a sketch Paul McCartney did with four little stick men crossing the Zebra,” says Brian Southall, author of the history of Abbey Road Studios. “It gave a pretty good idea of what they wanted.”

On the 8 August 1969 that the Fab Four walked out of No 3 Abbey Road, having finished basic work on what would be -and they subsequently said they knew would be- their last album. A policeman held up the traffic, the band walked back and forth a few times and that was that. Brian Southall The photographer who took the famous cover shot was the late Iain Macmillan, a close friend of Brian Southall's, who knew the Beatles through working with Yoko Ono. “He was given about 15 minutes,” says Mr Southall. “He stood up a stepladder while a policeman held up the traffic, the band walked back and forth a few times and that was that.” He only took seven or eight pictures, now in the Apple archive, but they're fascinating for their difference to the end product we all know. (Lawrence Pollard/BBC World Service)

BEN SHERMAN

An announcement today that might be of particular interest to Spy Vibers comes from Mod designer Ben Sherman, who is planning a line of Beatles of Fashion: Coinciding with Saturday's 40th anniversary of the Beatles sauntering across Abbey Road (at 11:35AM GBT to be precise) for what would become one of the most iconic album covers of its time, British clothing designer Ben Sherman has announced the launch of a Beatles--themed clothing line. Sherman’s Beatles Collection, set to hit stores next February, is all but nine articles: four t-shirts, four button downs and a mod era-inspired Harrington jacket.

Don’t expect the cotton short sleeves to come cheap. A regular Sherman shirt, like this John Belushi one, goes for a mean $45 on the designer’s US website. Given the tight restrictions with Beatles’ licensing- the Fab Four’s images, album artwork and memorabilia adorn the collection- a heftier price tag wouldn’t be that surprising. (Spinner). The book pictured above is My Favourite Shirt: A History of Ben Sherman Style. An additional item of note is that Mod musician and Oasis mentor Paul Weller (Style Council) has also been designing clothing. A shirt based on his original Ben Sherman has been selling well.

FAB GEAR

The countdown has begun! September 9th will see the release of The Beatles catalog remastered and the new Rock Band game (and some speculate there may be an iTunes announcement coming soon). Spy Vibers looking for a source of clothing and accessories in the British Invasion mode can find a number of fab outfits and more at BeatleSuits.Working from original clothes, they've managed to make pitch-perfect reproductions of iconic suits worn by The Beatles on Ed Sullivan, in A Hard Days Night, and at the Shea and Budokan concerts. One of my fave designs sported by the group was the Pierre Cardin-inspired collarless jackets worn for stage and television appearances through late-1963. Spy Vibe suggests wearing your fab gear for a night out at the cinema and club, or for a night in as one of the Fabs in Rock Band. More information about Beatles artifacts and history at The Liverpool Museum (see photo above).

MESSAGE FROM YOKO

Because Yoko was a supportive force behind the scenes for some of my students in the past, I wrote and asked her if she had any words of encouragement for my new art students. Her answer:  "The vibrations sent out by us artists, cover the Earth planet with wisdom and love, create world peace, and send good vibration to the Universe. Be true to yourself. You are beautiful." -Yoko Ono

New Plastic Ono Band album out this month! Congratulations to Yoko, Sean, Yuka, and the band from Spy Vibe! Gigs are scheduled in Japan. Hopefully a US tour will follow. Paul Simon mentioned in the Graceland documentary that even a strong message or spirit needs the right form or vessel to communicate that to an audience. After a number of dance re-mix projects, I would say that Yoko has now found a form that allows her concepts, improvisations, and messages to shine. From the clips I've heard so far, I think the new album will be one of her greatest collections of work. In related news, SpyVibers may also be interested in the Beatles catalog releases next week, as well as CD re-releases from Julian Lennon and an upcoming soundtrack album from Sean Lennon.

PLASTIC ONO BAND

From August: For Spy Vibers with a taste for experimental grooves and 60s artists working today, there is a new album coming out on Sept 21st by the new Plastic Ono Band, which includes Yoko and Sean, Yuka Honda, and Cornelius. I gather that they formed, as is the tradition with this band, for a group of recent shows and an interesting batch of recordings were the result. You can hear a sample on Yoko's Imagine Peace website, where you can also learn about her Smiling Face Film project, exhibits, and other news. Regardless of whether Yoko is your cup of tea as an artist, she is undeniably a fascinating and creative force whose Buddhist-like subtle conceptions and offerings should not go unnoticed behind the media and hype that follows her. If you would like to look into her artwork further, I suggest the book Y E S, and the upcoming book Yoko Ono (Modern Artists Series). Here is the album cover- great photograph! In youtube footage of the concerts, Yoko was stylishly Mod in a jersey with striped sleeves and short-brimmed white cap. She's industrious and, in her own eccentric way, very cool. All the best wishes to Yoko, Sean, Yuka, and the band from Jason at Spy Vibe.

BEATLES NOW AND THEN

A third demo tape given to Paul, George, and Ringo by Yoko Ono for the 1995 Anthology project was never complete by The Threetles. The song titled Now And Then is a classic, intimate tune from John's home tapes.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RINGO

From USA Today: In Praise of Ringo Starr, One Drummer to Another July 06, 2009 By Dennis Diken. Drummer Diken is a founding member of The Smithereens, who celebrated their 29th anniversary in March. The band's latest album is The Smithereens Play Tommy. Diken's first solo effort, Late Music, will be released this fall.

The Beatles maintain a stronghold on the imagination and hearts of music lovers. They win over new generations without trying, and their appeal shows no signs of waning. So when Ringo Starr turns 69 on Tuesday, his status as one of rock's most renowned drummers is secure, if only by association with the greatest show on earth. Yet inexplicably, Starr's legacy is clouded by misconception and ignorance. Some say he was the luckiest guy on earth, a competent player who stepped into a million-dollar quartet. Why the bum rap? Was it because he didn't overplay and shunned solos? Or was it his unassuming, Everyman countenance? Think about it: Could The Beatles have conquered the world with a mediocre sticksman? John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison found in Ringo an ironclad timekeeper who rocked and swung like mad, with style, imagination and versatility. He was the secret weapon of the best band of all time.

He hit the ground running in 1963 on I Saw Her Standing There with a steady, exciting pulse. This is "How to Groove With Your Bandmates 101," as he established a brotherhood with McCartney's fluid bass and Lennon's underrated rhythm guitar. Within months, Ringomania shifted into high gear with She Loves You, where he introduced the electrifying sizzle of high-hat cymbals that gave the early Fabs' discs a unique imprint. Later that year, Starr helped reinvent Chuck Berry's Roll Over Beethoven, with a fierce backbeat and a joy-of-life fervor. No other records sounded like this at the time, because no other drummers played like this before.

His influence spread like wildfire when The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on Feb. 9, 1964. Perched on his riser, Ringo was clearly in the driver's seat, and it was apparent that his membership in this exclusive fraternity owed as much to his exuberant persona as his musical prowess. An army of kids was mobilized that Sunday night, awaiting their call to the battle of the bands. Among the legion of teenage conscripts were drummers Bun E. Carlos of Cheap Trick, who calls Ringo "my generation's Gene Krupa," and Max Weinberg of the E Street Band, who thanks Starr for "showing us that a day or night spent drumming is just about better than anything else."

The Beatles' music evolved at a dizzying pace, and Starr adapted with gusto. He concocted fresh concepts, like his trademark framework for Ticket to Ride and the controlled chaos of Rain. The lazy lilt behind his vocal on With a Little Help From My Friends is a study in subtle, soulful dynamics and when not to play. To this day, producers direct studio drummers to "play like Ringo." Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith sums it up thusly: "The greatest thing a drummer can contribute to a recorded song is the feel of it -- and every Beatles song feels great."

Ringo "doesn't dazzle with flashy technique and pyrotechnics," says The Cars' lead guitarist, Elliot Easton. "What he does is so much more elusive and difficult: He plays songs on the drums. Anybody who has sat down behind a drum kit in the last 45 years owes him." And in The End, Ringo relented and sent himself out with a 17-second solo on Abbey Road, The Beatles' final studio album. Never considered much of a vocalist, Ringo nonetheless enjoyed a fruitful solo career. He continues to make quality records and tour with his All-Starr Band, appearing amazingly fit and spirited. And he still plays great. Like always, he makes it look easy. That's because to Ringo, it did come easy. (c) Copyright 2009 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Ringo will receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2010 (Photo above by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images), and joins his old bandmates in two exciting releases on September 9th, 2009: The Beatles RockBand video game and (at last) the first complete remastering of both stereo and mono mixes of all Beatles recordings for release on CD. I have seen Ringo perform many times and his joyful exuberance and good humor cannot be overstated. Beatles interviews and lyrics are filled with his quips, yet he also remains a kind of "everyman" character in the Fab universe. His recent hit, Liverpool 8, is a catchy, low-key and personal look back at his roots and life's path. The official video is viewable on Youtube (link embed in restricted).

Many of Ringo's best tunes are either collaborations with fellow Beatles and other music pals, or they are songs that lyrically express Ringo's emotions of love and loss for the friends in his life. I find the cream of his work quite touching and down-to-earth. A short list of post-Beatles team-ups finds Starr on most albums, the consummate drummer and friend. He spent his wild years making mayhem with pals Keith Moon, Marc Bolan, and playing on the Concert for Bangladesh and The Band's The Last Waltz. If you haven't explored Ringo's work lately, below are a few essentials. First and foremost for SpyVibers is The Beatles James Bond-styled comedy film Help (1965). In the age of iTunes/MP3 mixes, I will highlight tracks for those looking for a solid sampler. I hope you will check it out and spend some time with Ringo on his birthday. Cheers, Ringo!

RINGO STARR ESSENTIALS

Films: A Hard Days Night (1964), Help (1965), Yellow Submarine (1967), The Magic Christian (1969), The Point! (1971), Ringo Starr VH1 Storytellers (1998).

Beatles Tracks: I Wanna Be Your Man, Boys, Act Naturally, Rain, Tomorrow Never Knows, Strawberry Fields Forever, With a Little Help From My Friends, A Day in the Life, Yellow Submarine, Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey, Abbey Road (album).

Solo Beatles Tracks: Beautiful Night (McCartney with George Martin), All Those Years Ago (Harrison with McCartney), John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (album). Take it Away (McCartney), When We Was Fab (Harrison).

Ringo's Stop And Smell the Roses album (1981) saw Starr collaborating with the likes of Paul and Linda McCartney, George Harrison, wife (and Bond girl) Barbara Bach, Harry Nilsson, Stephen Stills, Al Kooper, and Ronnie Wood. Lennon was due to contribute in January 1981, but was killed in December. The album ends poignantly with promo spots for gun control.

Solo Tracks: Early 1970, Step Lightly, It Don't Come Easy, Photograph, Goodnight Vienna (reprise), Back Off Boogaloo, Never Without You, King of Broken Hearts, Liverpool 8, Harry's Song.

For more information, please visit the official Ringo Starr website. What's your favorite Ringo song? Have you seen any of his All-Star tours? Discuss Ringo's work and Birthday wishes on the SpyVibe blog. Photo by Richard Avedon. See below for related videos: Interview with Liverpool 8 excerpt, Never Without You (Harrison tribute), and Back Off Boogaloo (Marc Bolan inspired).