Deface The Music

Utopia: Deface The Music

Look, with Deface The Music, either you're going to get the joke or you're not and Utopia's wonderful collection of pastiche/parody Beatles songs are both dense with Beatle-ambience, as well as very good to excellent stand-alone songs.

If you can approach The Beatles with less than reverence, you could have a lot of fun with this criminally over-looked album. 

Deface The Music has also been arranged (almost) chronologically to reflect The Beatles' changing sounds from Beatlemania through to Magical Mystery Tour and there are pop-hooks a-plenty on these fun, fun, fun songs with each Utopian playing a Beatle:

• Todd...John
• Kasim...Paul
• Roger...George
• Willie...Ringo

So, let's start our Beatle-tour by switching on the box and going back to the black and white Ed Sullivan show and the Uptopian moptops singing a deceptively naughty: 

I Just Wanna Touch You (very Please Please Me + harmonica) 

"...There's something in the back of my mind
And it's burning for you all the time
...I just wanna touch you
Do you want to touch me, too?"

          I Just Wanna Touch You

Utopia: I Just Wanna Touch You

Crystal Ball (approximately You Can't Do That...from Side 2 of A Hard Days Night) 

"...I don't watch no television
Don't listen to the daily news
I'm afraid if I listen to the radio
I'll hear about the little things you do

I don't want no explanation
And nothing you could ever do
Could ever be a revelation
Cos I've heard it all

I don't need a crystal ball..."

            Crystal Ball

The fun continues with:

Alone (Yesterday...from Help)

"...Let me tell you a story
One you’ve probably heard
One about the man who was lost
And I can tell you in one word
A-l-o-n-e, a-lone
Nobody knows how lonely it can be
And he was tired of being alone..."

                    Alone 

Take It Home (Day Tripper)

Hoi Polloi (a great slightly druggy Penny Lane from Magical Mystery Tour)

"...We've been invited to a cocktail party
Over by the palace wall
I've not been dressed up since my graduation
Haven't been around at all
Look what happens when you reach the top
The whole world is your oyster
You walk 'round like a bleeding fop

Meet me outside the curiosity shop
No need to bring money
Life can be so funny
When you're hangin' around with the hoi polloi..."

                            Hoi Polloi

Life Goes On (Eleanor Rigby from Revolver)

"...He was a company man
He put his faith in the union and his take-home pay
A good Republican man
But they closed down the factory his retirement day

Life goes on whether or not there's a reason
Life goes on, enter another season..." 

                 Life Goes On

Feel Too Good (I'm Only Sleeping from Revolver)

"...I can't remember when I felt so high
My mind is on vacation and I don't know why
Wouldn't you like to go for a country drive
Doesn't it make you feel good to be alive
Luncheon by the roadside will do just fine
I left the water running
It just must have slipped my mind

Can't let the little things bother me
Because I feel too good
I feel so good that you just can't bring me down..."

             Feel Too Good

Always Late (a superb generic Ringo song) 

"...Always late
Yes it's alway the same
Procrastination is my middle name
But the rest off the world
Is ahead of the game

And that's why I'm always late..."

         Always Late

All Smiles (Michelle from Help)

Everybody Else Is Wrong (I Am The Walrus from Magical Mystery Tour) 

"...In the prime of one's life...

...Doesn't everyone concur, oh no...

...I feel so much surer now that
Everybody else is wrong..."

  Everybody Else Is Wrong

Deface The Music is a real triumph, very different from The Rutles' All You Need Is Cash, which is mostly just delightful parody, whereas Deface is so spot-on in its well-intentioned mimicry that it could easily be the soundtrack to a poorly disguised Beatle bio-movie.

Unfortunately this Beatles-ode was released just prior to John Lennon's murder... and it quickly sank without a trace as the world was understandably in no mood for an album poking gentle fun at The Beatles.

I think it's time to resurrect this great, fun album, now digitally remastered. Go, on, sing along or even scream your lungs off to Deface The Music, this, the greatest release of Utopia-mania.

Utopia: Deface The Music

"...ELO had released (the) very popular Face The Music (album) in 1975. Todd considered this to be 'halfway ripping off the Beatles', so, he said, 'if you are going to rip them off halfway, why not go all the way!' So here you have it: Probably one of the greatest tongue-in-cheek albums of all time! It's in the title, folks!.."

What can you say? Todd can do it all, and here he presents a loving, somewhat smart-mouthed exercise in songwriting. Proving that he really can write and produce any type of song, he brilliantly recreates the types of songs Paul, John, and George wrote at different stages in their Beatle careers...It's a great record...and...works on many levels..." Amazon reviewer A Customer 

"...Besides being a great power-pop album, it's loads of fun identifying the references that Todd and his bandmates sprinkle throughout each tune...." Amazon reviewer Michael Gerstbrein

 Utopia's Greatest Hits

a superb collection of power-pop

For more info, see:

• wikipedia Deface The Music