Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2014 May 25

= May 25 =

Beatles music
I'm in North Carolina, and in the beginning, word was going around that John and Paul could not read a single note of music. Any truth to that? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 139.55.180.97 (talk) 03:28, 25 May 2014 (UTC)
 * As far as I know, at least in their early days they could not read music. This is not so unusual of musicians. They worked it out and recorded it. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 05:39, 25 May 2014 (UTC)


 * All this talk of "in the beginning" and "word" reminds me of the Book of Genesis. Maybe NC is the Garden of Eden. Can any locals confirm? --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  20:25, 25 May 2014 (UTC)
 * True enough for Paul, at least as late as 1969, when he had to make up a tune for some Thomas Dekker lyrics that he found in a songbook. I don't know whether he may have learned to read at a later date, and funnily enough I haven't a clue about John, though I would be shocked if he ever learned to read music. George couldn't read music as late as 1987, when he sang (rather than wrote) the cello arrangement for "When We Was Fab." And Ringo... well, he's Ringo. And Jack, as an NC resident, I can at least report that I have seen neither the Gihon nor the Pishon of late. Come to think of it, though, that might explain all the talking snakes I've been meaning to ask about on the science desk... Evan (talk&#124;contribs) 20:31, 25 May 2014 (UTC)
 * As late as 1991, Paul McCartney couldn't read sheet music. I have no idea if he still cannot, but it was widely reported after his Liverpool Oratorio was published and performed that he wrote it without being able to actually read and write proper musical notation; he used computer notation software to create the actual score (which he could neither read nor write).  This article written in 2007 explains McCartney's writing of classical music.  It's important to note what he says in that article, and I quote, "“But when I say ‘I can’t write music’, I can; I just can’t notate it. I remember one occasion when John and I were writing and we both said, ‘Oh God, we can’t notate’. Someone said, ‘But the great Pharaohs never wrote. They had a scribe to write everything down.’ Me and John thought, ‘That’ll do us!’ So we never tried to learn; instead, George did it for us. We just went with the Pharaoh theory.”" Later, " It’s a theory that has served McCartney well, not least with his latest work Ecce Cor Meum. The four-movement oratorio, plus instrumental interlude, is scored for large choir and full orchestra. How did he manage to marshall these forces and get it all down on paper? “I worked on a computer. Sounds simple but you have to do it accurately. The computer had to be told everything. For example, I didn’t realise some parts had to be in treble or bass clef, so you had these ladders of notes [ledger lines that extend the music stave] going lower and lower until someone pointed out a bass clef was required. They’d hit the keyboard and ‘chink’ they all printed properly!” “So I had musical associates working with me on Ecce, but a rule I made was that all the notes had to be mine."  So, there you go.  McCartney of course knows how to create and write music, he just doesn't know how to read and write the specific notation used on traditional musical staves in the western classical tradition.  I'm pretty sure the George he talks about is George Martin, well trained in the Classical tradition as he was, who could easily notate the music.  -- Jayron  32  17:01, 27 May 2014 (UTC)

Skrillex
Are WEEKENDS!!! (feat. Sirah), a song which appears on Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites the same song as from Skrillex' My Name Is Skrillex? It' sounds like it hav ebeen remixed a bit but i'm not 100% sure. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.161.143.239 (talk) 18:29, 25 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Both sound like a dot matrix printers being tossed in wood chippers to me, so sure, same song. Ian.thomson (talk) 18:31, 25 May 2014 (UTC)
 * @OP: Weekends is not on Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites. Maybe you mean this version of More Monsters and Sprites? In that case, it has the same version and a remix. --&mdash;  Rhododendrites talk  |  02:57, 29 May 2014 (UTC)
 * - Why respond at all if you're going to insult the OP's taste in music rather than offer an answer?--&mdash;  Rhododendrites talk  |  02:57, 29 May 2014 (UTC)