So American Idol is changing the performance schedule in order to do another Lennon-McCartney night.
Another night of butchering the Beatles. Heaven help us...
When the first one was announced, the eternal optimist in me had high hopes that a contestant or two might rediscover a lesser-known gem, rearrange it, and have a performance as good as David Cook's amazing "Hello" a couple of weeks ago.
After seeing the performances, I came to my senses.
As every decent musician knows, Beatles songs are something you sit around playing and singing at home with your friends on acoustic guitars.You don't dare actually sing one in public, because no one will ever do them as well as they did, so you can never really make them your own.
Not even the best of the best will go there, other than as a fun encore at the end of the night (often with a playful McCartney-style headshake in acknowledgment). Or at a tribute event for one of the fallen Beatles. In other words, those that dare perform them in front of an audience know the deal: those songs, and the Beatles' performances of them, were perfect.
So it's reeeeeeally awkward watching the less-than-the best use those songs to try to get their careers happening.
All I can say is...if they must, I hope they go deep into the catalog.
You can read more about song selection and choosing cover songs here.
