More on "Revolution", plus, a new musical...

BeatlesNews.com links to three items of note today that I wanted to share. One is Scott Thill at the Wired blog writing on the "Revolution #1 (Take 20)" track leaked last week, making the case that there is no stopping the internet when it comes to leaking stuff. Apparently that track IS slated for release on a UK-only LP of bootleg material coming out before too long, but I'll bet even the other tracks on that album will have been heard before-- even before the internet, Beatles fans have proven remarkably good at leaking and sharing bootleg recordings. What the internet has done is erode the wall of coolness previously necessary to figure out where to get your bootlegs. Bootlegs were once the realm of the rarified Beatles dandy, as it were, but now we can all partake of the riches. "Revolution #1 (Take 20)" became the stuff of myth BECAUSE it was one of the only known tracks to be completely unavailable for all these years. Better go ahead and release what you've got, record companies, because surely someone else will beat you to it otherwise. In a world in which I've heard "Revolution #1 (Take 20)," anything is possible.

In other news, Slashfilm brings us word that Backbeat director Iain Softley is casting for Backbeat: The Musical. If Ian Hart stars in it, that will make the fourth time he's played John Lennon, which must be some kind of record-- though Ian Hart must have aged out of that role, come to think of it. Anyway, I liked the film (liked the soundtrack much less, though Greg Dulli did a decent enough "Slow Down"), but can't decide how I feel about possibly going to see it in the West End.

And finally, Liverpool Hope University is offering an M.A. in The Beatles, Popular Music, and Society. Though the Popular Music Head diminishes his credibility slightly in this article by claiming that the "Strawberry Fields Forever" promo video is the first music video (um... it wasn't even the Beatles' first music video, dude), still... this is my dream degree. That's it-- I'm quitting my job, moving to Liverpool, and majoring in Beatleology! Who's with me?