NEW YORK (Reuters) -- A group of
New York musicians is planning to do what the Beatles never did --
perform the songs the Fab Four might have recorded as their final
album had they stayed together just a little longer.
The Beatles tribute band The Fab Faux -- made up of some of the New
York's leading professional musicians -- will perform the songs
they think would have been on that album on Tuesday and
Wednesday.
The performance at New York's Webster Hall consists of material
from the original Fab Four's early solo careers.
All of the tracks will be performed with distinctive Beatles-type
arrangements, rather than the spartan feel of Lennon's early
recordings and McCartney's first solo effort, recorded at his home
almost as a demo tape.
"It's totally on a lark because it didn't happen. It wouldn't have
happened," keyboardist and guitarist Jack Petruzzelli said.
The Fab Faux's set will include the John Lennon songs "Jealous
Guy," "Instant Karma," "Mother," "Remember" and "Gimme Some Truth."
From Paul McCartney comes "Maybe I'm Amazed," "Every Night,"
"Another Day," "Hot as Sun/Glasses" and "Oo You." They'll also
perform George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass," "My Sweet Lord"
and "What is Life."
And no late Beatles album would be complete without a Ringo Starr
song, in this case, "It Don't Come Easy."
Many of the songs were tried out by the Beatles while they were
together. But the Fab Faux chose December 1970 as the cutoff date
for when a song had to be started to give them the best material to
work with. The Beatles officially split in April 1970, when
McCartney said he was leaving the band.
The Fab Faux was dreamed up a decade ago, by musician Will Lee, who
has played with all four Beatles and whose regular gig is playing
bass in the house band on CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman." He
wanted to start "the greatest Beatles band that anyone has ever
seen."
Within a year, four other musicians joined the project. There was
Rich Pagano, who has toured with Rosanne Cash and Patti Smith, and
whose love of the Beatles dates back to playing in a
Beatles-tribute band as a teenager.
Petruzzelli, who has played with Joan Osborne and Rufus Wainwright,
was also added to the lineup. So too was Jimmy Vivino, Lee's
neighbor and the guitarist for NBC's "Late Night with Conan
O'Brien" band. Guitarist Frank Agnello, who had toured with
Marshall Crenshaw and Phoebe Snow, rounded the Fab Faux out as the
fifth member.
"We're not a wigs and noses Beatles band," said Vivino. The band's
obsession with detail sets them apart from mere pretenders, he
said.
"We look at it totally, totally from the music side, the way a
chamber orchestra does Mozart or Beethoven."
Lee, who once telephoned Starr to check his theory of how a certain
drum sound was produced, said advances in music technology makes
their job easier.
"We know the tricks. We know how to get the sound," he said.
The Fab Faux hopes to create the magic that the other three Beatles
would have brought to each member's solo work.
"The flavor of what we do is such that it really does satisfy
somebody who wants to groove at an event, wants to move and stuff,
and it also is just as palatable to those who just want to sit and
watch a show, just listen to music," Lee said.