Named for the storied New Orleans street that runs from the Mississippi River to Lake Pontchartrain, Elysian Fields Forever is a mixture to two enduring musical traditions: the endlessly adaptable songbook of The Beatles, and the anything-goes spirit of New Orleans. The concept is straightforward but the execution is anything but — New Orleans music is all kinds of music, and the strength of The Beatles’ songs allows the band to move across styles and genres with ease while showcasing their influences, from Fats Domino to The Meters, Big Star to The Ramones, and, of course, The Beatles themselves.
Highlights include album opener “With A Little Help From My Friends,” pulled from the pages of the power-pop handbook (Alex Chilton of Big Star called New Orleans home for the last 20 years of his life), “I’ve Got A Feeling,” which takes the song from its London rooftop origins to the funk grooves of The Meters and James Brown; “I’m Only Sleeping” stays in their hometown, feeling like a hazy late night in the haunted corners of the French Quarter; “Help!” is done as a ballad, akin to John Lennon’s original vision of the song; George Harrison’s eastern deep cut “The Inner Light” becomes a Bollywood-second line groove, with psychedelic electric banjo replacing the original’s sitar. Horns, big vocals, walls of guitars, punk rock energy, and most of all, a palpable love of the music fill out the record.
The project was made possible with support from the Threadhead Cultural Foundation, which champions New Orleans’ living musical traditions
“Why would a Beatles cover band make a record of Beatles covers?” Well…good question. We’ve oddly been asked a number of times if we had a record for sale. That seemed odd to us, as the Beatles have…um…a lot of records one can easily buy. The idea of doing something different struck us as a fun possibility. We’ve talked a lot about what we wanted this album to be, and not to be, and what we definitely didn’t want were carbon copies of what The Beatles did. Certainly, we weren’t going to better anything they’ve done, so the idea was to just do everything different, while staying true to the roots of the songs, and also to our own individual roots. We all come very different musical backgrounds, and our personal bread and butters come from very different musical kitchens…Andre and Dave have been the rhythm section in New Orleans funk/rock/jazz/blues mainstays Johnny Sketch & The Dirty Notes for almost 25 years (and Andre, our drummer, is also a classically trained pianist)…Felix is a consummate jazz guitarist and more of a Stones fan than a Beatles fan…Jonathan’s more an alt rock & power pop guy, but also one of the biggest Beatles nerds around (he even has a Beatles podcast, Ranking The Beatles). All of our roads converge though, in 2 cities, New Orleans and Liverpool…port cities with arguably the largest musical influences of the last 2 centuries. And in that divergence, we end up doing what we do. Live, we play Beatles music, as one remembers it, but without trying to sound like the Beatles. We just don’t have that ability. We don’t wear wigs and do the accents. We just sound like ourselves, playing Beatles songs.
So if we were going to make a record of Beatles covers, we wanted to really dive into what we love about all of the music that makes us who we are, and that’s what this record is. There were no bad ideas, or ideas not tried. Nothing was too precious to allow everyone to get their hands on and make their own imprint. No two songs sound alike or are in the same style, it’s an absolute genre fever dream, but that’s what makes it so much fun. We think so, at least, as we certainly had a lot of fun making it, and we hope you have as much fun listening to it.
With A Little Help From My Friends: The first song we recorded for the album, it was kind of a proof of concept of if this could work. The idea was to try it through a Big Star-esque power pop lens (Alex Chilton did spend his last 20 years living in New Orleans after all), so big 12 string electric guitar, chiming rhythms, harmony backing vocals…wait aren’t those just Beatles hallmarks? And New Orleans has a rich, if unappreciated history of great pop rock bands, so consider this a nod.
Eleanor Rigby: We had to figure out a way to do this song live without a string section, and this was how we worked it out. It became more acoustic and piano-based live, but in the studio we stopped trying to emulate the string arrangement, and found a bit more sparse, organic place for it to live, with classical piano flourishes and blusey guitar licks.
I’ve Got A Feeling: This wasn’t even supposed to be on the album. While in a session, between overdubs on other songs, Dave had an idea, and in about 30 minutes, we had a take, done totally live. The Beatles version was recorded on a windy, cold London rooftop, but this one was made for a dark, sweaty night at The Maple Leaf bar on Oak St in New Orleans.
I’ve Just Seen A Face: What if you took this 1965 acoustic-led, country tune, and gave it some trucker speed? It’d probably sound kind of like New Orleans cowpunk legends Dash Rip Rock. So what better way to go that route than bringing in Dash drummer Kyle Melancon? Andre adds some lap steel he got from his father, the late, great Spencer Bohren (which you also hear on “Eleanor”), Felix does his best chicken pickin’, while Dave and Jonathan deliver the co-lead vocal. If a song can be both loose and tight, it’s this one.
Help!: In the 1970s, John Lennon said several times that he wanted to re-record a number of Beatles songs, including this one, which he felt should’ve been slower and more in line with how he was feeling when he wrote it. Jonathan found a bootleg of him playing it on piano in the Dakota building in the 70s, and used that idea as the foundation of our version. On that bootleg, John keeps going to wrong chord in the chorus, a C#m instead of B#. We took that wrong chord and used it to move to a bridge after Felix’s slide solo. There’s also some mellotron strings, gorgeous Pink Floyd-style backing vocals courtesy of Debbie Davis and Arsene DeLay, and an easter egg in the solo for keen ears. It’s our best effort at completing the idea John was going for. We hope he would dig it.
I’m Only Sleeping: No bad ideas, right? So…the alt-rock guy has an idea for a trad-jazz arrangement of this song…lol. Thankfully, the other guys know how that could work. Felix switched to banjo and came up with the tasty little intro lick. We brought in Jason Mingledorff and Greg Hicks on clarinet and trombone, respectively, and tried to create something that feels like a night in the darker, haunted parts of the French Quarter.
The Inner Light: “Obscure Beatles songs” are a rarity, but this may definitely be one of those. The b-side to “Lady Madonna,” this is a George Harrison song that has no input from the other lads except for one vocal contribution at the end. With Andre taking the lead vocal, we turned this into a Bollywood-meets-second-line groove. During pre-production, Felix stumbled upon an electric banjo, which we found could sound vaguely sitar-esque, so that’s the main lead guitar you hear. Papa Mali joined to add some psychedelic, spaced out guitar, while percussionist-extraordinaire Mike Dillon added tablas to keep the Indian flavor.
This Boy: It seems to be forgotten sometimes that rock & roll was invented in New Orleans on N. Rampart St, at Cosimo Matassa’s J&M Studio. It’s where Fats Domino recorded “The Fat Man,” Little Richard did “Tutti Frutti,” and so much more. So Fats was kind of our guiding light for this one, though Johnnie Adams’ “I Won’t Cry” was the blueprint. We added a sax section courtesy of Jason Mingledorff (who played in Fats’ band) and Travis Blotsky, and traded rhythm guitar for the Fats-style triplet piano. We had to keep the 3 part harmony as it’s the hallmark of the song, and the bridge is so nice we did it twice. We also recorded and mixed it in mono, so it sounds a bit more like an old 45 rpm single.
And Your Bird Can Sing: This was a journey. We started out trying to make this reggae, then it got bluesy, then Felix pulled it more into the world of the Rolling Stones. Then it went down a dark hole of sludgy doom metal in the “when your bird is broken” bridge. Shout out to the Fat City metal scene. It felt absurd, but we dug it. Again, no bad ideas.
If I Fell: In which the jazz guy wants to do a punk-style cover of a ballad because he watched The Ramones “Rock & Roll High School” last night. That’s the origin story here. What seemed an insane idea was one of the most fun to work out. This was recorded live, no click track. Jonathan, who hates taking guitar solos, takes the guitar solo. One more time…no bad ideas.
Oh! Darling: All music funnels through New Orleans, even country music. One of the fathers of country-rock, Gram Parsons, is buried in Metairie, just outside of New Orleans proper. His work with Emmylou Harris inspired our take on “Oh! Darling.” McCartney sang this better than anyone else will, so we may as well just do it different. Our friend Debbie Davis joins us on this to play the Emmylou to Jonathan’s Gram. This album probably wouldn’t have happened without her help, so, thanks Debbie :)
Helter Skelter: Well, why the hell not? How else are we supposed to end this album?
With A Little Help From My Friends
Eleanor Rigby
I’ve Got A Feeling
I’ve Just Seen A Face (feat. Kyle Melancon)
Help! (feat. Debbie Davis & Arsene Delay)
I’m Only Sleeping (feat. Jason Mingledorff & Greg Hicks)
The Inner Light (feat. Papa Mali & Mike Dillon)
This Boy (feat. Jason Mingledorff & Travis Blotsky
And Your Bird Can Sing
If I Fell
Oh! Darling (feat. Debbie Davis)
Helter Skelter (feat. Debbie Davis & Arsene Delay)
