Customer Reviews

Nine Hours In November

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

You can tell that these guys are doing it for the love of the music that the Beatles created. 1964 -The Tribute goes to great
lengths to present the music as the fan back in 1964 would have seen them! While the facial looks are not quite as close (how can you expect it to be anyway?) as you would like I found that while watching them try squinting just a little and you would never know the difference! The man (Mark I believe is his name) nails Johns onstage movements to a tee. He even sounds like him when he speaks. The gentleman playing Paul is not quite as close but hey, who cares the sound is spot-on! All of these gentlemen look the part from a distance. This is the only concert I have not wanted to sit on the front row because seeing their faces more closely would break the illusion. I give this group a 5 star rating! They deserve it. Groups like this will help preserve the legacy The Beatles left us. It's the next best thing to a real concert that we know can never happen again....

1964...The Tribute are apparently the number one Beatles tribute show on Earth (according to "Rolling Stone," and not the group's own website). The group ranked 167 out of the Top 200 Box Office grossing bands for 2004, which, you have to admit, has to be pretty good for a tribute band (I mean, do you think there is actually another tribute band in the top 200? I would sort of hate to think so). The year 1964 is when the Beatles appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and shook the United States out of its depression in the wake of the assassination of President Kennedy. By the end of that year the Beatles had produced their first four albums, putting out the soundtrack for "A Hard Day's Night" and "Beatles for Sale," and while almost all of the songs on "Nine Hours in November" come from the 1963-64 period in concert the group does cover songs released prior to "Sgt. Pepper," certainly a natural dividing line in terms of both looks and music for the Fab Four.

"Nine Hours In November" is an album cut in that amount of time at that time of year. The idea was to go and cut a record just like the Beatles did in the early day, where you go into the studio, everybody plays at once, and you get it right. I think this makes "If I Fell" the key track on the album, because it seems to me that these four are trying to capture the feel of when the Beatles did that song in "A Hard Day's Night." The songs selected are all from the 1963-64 period with the additional qualification that none of them are #1 songs by the Beatles, of which there were a lot at that time. So instead of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You" we get "It Won't Be Long," "I'll Follow the Sun," and "And I Love Her." They even cover several songs the Beatles were covering in the beginning of their career with "Slow Down," "Boys," "Kansas City" and Chuck Berry's "Rock and Roll Music." The guy playing George even gets to do "Don't Bother Me," which is nice because I think the first Harrison song by the Beatles is a pretty good one and it should not be forgotten as such.

The goal here is obviously to have fun recreating the sound of the Beatles from the early days. This is even clearer on their live album, "All You Need Is Live," where you can here women screaming during all of the songs and hitting the harmony on the start of "I'm a Loser" inspires a round of admiration and a second go at it. Granted, listening to a tribute band on CD does not really make sense; the point is to go see them perform live and have fun pretending you are at a Beatles concert, which is something most of us never got to do (my cousin Donna went to the show at Shea Stadium and I can remembering starring at her tickets on her bulletin board insanely jealous).

So listening to a studio album by a tribute band seems like the worst of both worlds, but these guys clearly love what they are doing. The guy doing John sounds more like John than the guy doing Paul sounds like Paul, but their harmonies are pretty good and with early Beatles songs that is the main attraction. Plus (and here is the reason I rounded up on this one), they are clearly making a concerted effort to sound like the Beatles in concert and not like they are performing the recordings live. That is a more flattering form of imitation as far as I am concerned. Still, I suspect that this album will be bought mainly by fans of 1964...The Tribute who have seen them in concert and who want to support their attempt to recreate the music and feelings of Beatlemania.

I have seen 1964 during the time of this lineup.
They were the best. Other Beatle acts don't have
the attention to detail these guys have. The two
lead vocalists are spot on. The drummer (who looks
just like Ringo) and the George left shortly after
this recording. Shame. It's ironic that it took the
Beatles to bring back authentic 50's rock and roll
to the US and now americans are the best at recreating
60's british rock. Any Beatle fan will love this
collection.

I have seen 1964 The Tribute perform 7 or 8 times, and they just continue to amaze me. I was 14 years old when the Beatles came to America, and I am still among the millions who think their music was better than any other--before or after 1964. I recently saw 1964 The Tribute in San Antonio at the Majestic Theater, and they were better than ever. This album captures much of the incredible work that they have done to achieve the true Beatle sound. In particular, "If I Fell", "I'm Down". "There's a Place", and "You Can't Do That", stand out as true gems on this CD. My 86 year old mother thought "I'll Follow the Sun" was actually the Beatles recording when she heard it on my car stereo. Sometimes the similarity is so good its difficult to tell whether its the Beatles or not. Though the personnel which make up the band is ever changing, 1964 The Tribute remains the top Beatles tribute band, and one of the finest bands of any type on tour today. If you purchase this album, and you are a real Beatles fan, you will not be disappointed.

As a huge Beatle fan, I always wondered how new recording technology would have taken the boys to even firther heghts (if that was possible) I stumbled over this CD and wondered how good can a tribute band be????? Folks ...these guys are AWESOME!!! So much that I dorve 3 hours to go see them when I went to their website to find out what thier tour schedule was. To my delight, they were every bit as good on stage as they are on this CD. This IS worth getting.