Way back when Rocko and the Devils first got together to rehearse for our big night in Hawaii, we were all on time off from working for Journey and U2 in January of 2006. We had gotten permission to use Journey's equipment in their secret warehouse north of San Francisco. The guys in Journ ey are the greatest and were very helpful to us all through our adventure. We had to go out there anyway to pack up the gear for a one-off Journey show in Phoenix, so we just came out 6 days early and rehearsed. We were still not locked in on what we would play yet, so we just started messing around by jamming in the key of "E" since my limited voice range works well in that key. After trying several variations on a basic Metallica theme, for reasons I will never understand I started singing the words to Eleanor Rigby over this heavy rhythm of the old "Peter Gunn" bass line. It was just something we did and then looked at each other and went "WOW, this is cool! We continued messing with it.... trying 3 part harmony on the verses (made it sound too much like Yes), speeding it up, slowing it down, but it always came down to the version we played in Hawaii. For all of us the Beatles were the greatest songwriters ever, so it was important to us not to do anything disrespectful to any of their music, so if Sir Paul ever hears this version, please know that it was done out of pure love. We hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed playing it!
Love - Rocko
Link to the video with the Eleanor Rigby performance from the Hawaii concert:
http://www.rockoandthedevils.com/video/video.htm
And on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAwszCY5gxE
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3 comments:
I think this is one of the best versions of this song that I have ever heard. And this song was not on my list of fave Beatles tunes.
Quite happy to listen to it over and over, now I just have to figure out to how rip the audio from it *cough cough*
And your voice sounds fine.
this song is perfect rocko, your voice is just amazing, and this song will always take me back to that special place, that special night. first i read of you rehearsing it, then hearing it during the afternoon soundcheck, then prior to your gig you denying that it would be played, and yep, then it filling the stadium and our senses with the inaugural moments of our first concert with you. hope it's a staple in the future. yet, unlike bono, please don't put it on your first live album w/out working things out with Sir Paul, as Clouds on Blood Red Sky sounds like it was a nasty expensive spank for the few lines of pleasure it gave them and us LOL. but like you say, let's enjoy it while we can.
stay close,
sammi =)
You know, I looked for you all over that damned Stadium after the concert, but I kept missing you everywhere I went. Tom and I had to go over to the boat for the after-concert party and I was bummed I didn't see you there, either. Wanted to tell you how awesomely stellar you and the guys sounded that night. Eleanor Rigby was Oh-Yeah! perfect. Hope to see you soon!
~Barb (from Hawaii)
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