Almost exactly 50 years ago, the Beatles came to Hamburg’s tawdry Reeperbahn district and, dressed mostly in black leather, transformed themselves into the best rock band in the world. Later this month, a group of American indie rockers will play the band’s old club, the Indra, to commemorate the raw, fast, very early Beatles.
Named for an X-rated movie theater where the Liverpudlians stayed when they first hit town, Bambi Kino is made up of drummer Ira Elliot from Nada Surf, bassist Erik Paparazzi from Cat Power, guitarist Doug Gillard from Guided by Voices, and guitarist Mark Rozzo from Maplewood. (Here they are playing “Slow Down” at the Bowery Ballroom, by the way.)
[Update: Bambi Kino plays at Taix in Echo Park on Saturday, Oct. 9, which would have been John Lennon’s 70th birthday.]
Rozzo — a gifted writer I know from the journalist trenches, who is so talented can forgive his wrong-headed advocacy of Paul over John — spoke to the Misread City about the band’s upcoming gig.
Remember, John Lennon also played guitar. And Paul McCartney played guitar in the band until the spring of 1961 (and then, of course, later on many Beatles recordings). We don’t do role-playing in the band (I know, it sounds like SM), so each of us might sing songs originally sung by John, Paul, George, Pete, or Ringo.
I’m not sure I’m a dedicated Paul guy. I don’t think I’d ever say that, but I’d always gravitated toward him for whatever reason. I think when I was younger my singing voice most closely matched his and I do think he’s a melodist of a very high order and quite obviously the most capable and complete musician in the band. He was essentially the Beatles’ musical director and the way I’ve said it before is that McCartney is a musical genius while Lennon was a pure artist. In Bambi Kino, I sing many more John songs than Paul songs. I don’t have the top of my range that I used to have (remember: Little Richard sang “Long Tall Sally” in F and McCartney raised it up a notch, to G!) and, since I play guitar, there’s something more organic about singing John’s stuff. (Although, just to get annoyingly technical, John’s and Paul’s vocal ranges were much more closely matched than most people assume.)
And yet… oddly enough, when Maplewood was opening for America on some shows last month, a lady came up to me after we played and said, in a mega Jersey accent, “You remind me of Pool McCawtney!” Um, OK. Not that I see it!
Photos show Sutcliffe and Harrison up top, George, Paul and John below.