'Love" is a gamble.
The mere idea of it - Remixes? Mash-ups? Cirque du Soleil? Vegas? - raises so many red flags for Beatles' purists, it's a wonder that bulls didn't come charging into the Mirage's ballroom, "Love" headquarters since June.
"We thought there were going to be a lot of people pissed off at this," says Giles Martin, who produced the music for "Love" with his father, George, The Beatles' producer and longtime collaborator. "I wanted to add a note that said, 'No Beatles were harmed in the making of this album.'"
With all the acrobatics and dizzying dance numbers in "Love," Beatles fans may go along with Cirque du Soleil as it puts hip-hop headspins into "I Want to Hold Your Hand" or popping-and-locking in the "Help!" roller-skating extravaganza. They may even accept the way "Blackbird," an anthem inspired by the civil rights movement, has become a bit of comic relief about, well, blackbirds, you know, learning to fly. But tampering with memories is a tricky business, and both Martins took the process of creating "Love" seriously.
"You still have everything you love," Martin says. "This hasn't been some crass marketing experiment. ... It sounds really corny, but the album is born out of love."
PHOTO: © 2006 Cirque Apple Creation Partnership
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