Open Web Player
I was driving my fifteen-year-old daughter somewhere as she picked up the jewel case for "Meet the Smithereens!" The disc was loaded and playing as I explained to her that The Smithereens had recorded a complete cover of "Meet the Beatles!" with the intention of exacting the Fab's sound as much as could be. It wasn't an interpretation, at least not by intent.
After a pause she asked honestly, "Why don't you just put on 'MtB!' and listen to that?" Her question was not only a good one, but also a fair one.
I countered by asking why she comes in the door after school to immediately IM a friend she saw eight minutes ago on the bus. It was a lame comeback without any correlation, which left me with her question. Why didn't I just cue up "Mtb!" and listen to the real thing? Is "MtS!" any different from an Elvis impersonator?
Yes, because the Elvis impersonator tries to become Elvis, however incompletely. And because The Smithereens are The Smithereens, with a long history of great original music. And not even The Beatles can eclipse the sound of The Smithereens, which leaks out of their high resolution tribute to their source in the same sort of way that a real laugh is unavoidable and can't be contained. After all, eventually the shape and content of the protege no longer fits the contours of the mentor, which is of course the entire point.
In larger scope, culturally, The Smithereens are reminding us - those of us old enough to remember - of those electric months that straddled the end of 1963 and the start of 1964. For those not old enough, "MtS!" - and the dedication of the group to recreating the sound of The Beatles - is a sort of implicit documentray of a Western cultural watershed.
The emergence of "MtB!" in the fall of 1963, followed by the first of the appearances "The Ed Sullivan Show," was a rip in traditional mores. In such a short time, at least by popular perception, the old ended and the new began. This schism had been incubating since before JPG&R came of age, of course, and so The Beatles in no way wholly created it; nor did any one entity. But they did happen to catch the wave at just the right moment to become the presenters of "Why not?" to the masses.
For anyone who, by age or isolation, was somehow unaware of The Beatles at that time it's not really possible to fully describe their impact, so I'll just say this. I was ten years old and in the fourth grade. I left school on Friday, February 7th to enjoy the weekend. On the night of Sunday, February 9th, I watched The Beatles perform on Ed Sullivan. When I returned to school Monday, February 10th, I was a different person. I couldn't appreciate intellectually what had happened, but I knew viscerally something had. A lot of us did that Monday morning, which was only confirmed by our teacher refusing to let as talk about what we had heard and seen. But we talked anyway. Quietly at lunch and enthusiastically on the playground. Something was up, something so powerful it washed over us despite being delivered in a black-and-white image and through a tinny mono speaker. Something big, something permanent.
That, really, is what "Meet the Smithereens!" is about. And so here we are in 2007, the 21st century, dealing not with The Future as we imagined it would be way back then, but with tribal warfare, religious fundamentalist nut jobs and, once the calculated selling of cool is removed from the mix, a stunning degree of conformity. I can't think of a better time of which to be reminded than when we met The Beatles. Thanks, Smithereens, you're gear!
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Reviews with images
All Photos
You'll want to meet them!
Fun, fun, fun! Talk about bringing a classic back to life. This is a tribute at the highest level- recreating an entire album. And the results are spectacular! Whether you're a Smithereens fan or Beatles fan you'll love this great trip down memory lane! Enjoy!
Top reviews from other countries
Mulwharchar
Better than The Beatles ?
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 16, 2010