Guest David
GuestForum Replies Created
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I think the title should be “Wings Across Europe.” It’ll get Paul McCartney’s attention and can be explained as a reference to Neve, a migratory goose. ????
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Jung, thanks for starting a great topic. I’d heard the term “counterpoint,” but never knew what it meant. While watching the David Bennett video, I started thinking of Scarborough Fair and sure enough, he mentioned it. As David H. said, it’s like two melodies playing simultaneously that sound good together. I think that gets at the idea that each can stand on its own, but also that they somehow “fit” together.
Artists have explored the idea of what it takes to “fit.” Visual artists like David Salle will put seemingly random images side by side, forcing the viewer to come up with a narrative that encompasses both. See, for instance: https://d1dzh206jt2san.cloudfront.net/posts-images/743X483/335_1511515717JijTn.jpg
In music, the famous minimalist work, “In C”, has performers playing from a list of melodic phrases in such a way that what they are playing is almost always (but not always!) counterpoint to what others are playing. But it’s for the most part chance, leaving it to the listener to come up with a coherent whole that makes sense of it all. It’s called “In C” because all the phrases are in C Major, but also because there’s a repetitive striking of the middle C key on a piano throughout the piece, which reinforces the idea that all of this goes together. It’s clearly not everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s interesting hearing all the performers doing their own thing in a way that drifts in and out of agreement with what others are doing, occasionally at odds and occasionally reinforcing.
Edit: I had linked to a version that had a picture of the sheet music, in case anyone was interested. But it was crazy long. This is the original album version, from 1968. It’s the kind of thing John and Yoko might’ve been into…
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David, thanks for providing these numbers. I started tracking the channel subscriber and views numbers recently. Over the last two weeks, overall views have increased by more than 450,000, but subscribers have been stuck on 206,000.
Have you tracked / are you tracking any other numbers for the channel?
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Hi Kevin,
Welcome to the club. Enjoy exploring the site. If there’s anything you’ve been wanting to ask the twins, take a look under the “Fun and Games” menu, down to Q&As. Mona and Lisa do regular video sessions where they answer questions submitted through that section of the site. You’ll find those videos in the “Clubhouse” section.
–David
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Same here, Tim, about hoping to see a 2023 calendar. As a fairly new MLT Club member, I could only hear talk about the 2022 calendar. Seeing the one in Jung Roe’s post could only remind me of what I was missing. Lisa does indeed look stunning in the August photo. I suspect every month either Lisa or Mona is looking stunning.
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I just thought of a possible title: “No Cover.” On the one hand, it speaks to a certain vulnerability in challenging times. On the other, it refers to the fact that it’s an album of all original music, literally with no covers.
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I’m happy to report that the MonaLisa Twins Youtube channel now has it’s “verified account” check mark! I spotted it on Youtube around 10pm GMT (that’s 6:00 pm EDT in the U.S.)
The check mark doesn’t mean MLT gets better royalties or anything, but I think it has a certain cache since you need to be the official channel (not a parody or fan channel) with at least 100,000 subscribers. I hope it will give the account more credibility when someone sees the mark and that it will result in more views and a faster rate of new subscribers.
So I think this is good news and time will tell if I’m right.
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Hi Jung,
Great thread you started. As a child of the 60s, the Beatles were background music to my childhood. I know my parents liked them because we always had the albums and none of us kids knew how to buy stuff. I remember my favorite song was the third song on Rubber Soul. It gets fuzzy from there. I also remember thinking I could make myself look like Ringo on the cover of Hard Day’s Night. I tried to demonstrate, but I needed to hold a cigarette (you’ll recognize the shot on the album cover). My dad smoked but my mom disapproved and wouldn’t let him give me one. Good for you, Mom! Having no candy cigarettes around (which were a thing back then), they were alas denied my visual transformation.
I also remember my mom had the John Lennon books, “In His Own Write” and “A Spaniard in the Works,” neither of which made a lick of sense to my undeveloped brain.
Other Beatles ephemera passed through our house, like a fan magazine that went through the “Paul is dead” myth (which of course was news to me) and decided it was a publicity stunt.
Lastly, I remember going with my mom and siblings to Sears, where Mom bought the white album. Each was individually numbered. Ours must’ve been 800-something thousand–I remember the 8 and can’t imagine we would’ve had 80-something thousand. Crazy what random things we recall from childhood. I wonder if that album is still around. It wouldn’t surprise me if one of my siblings took it when they moved out!
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Jung, I thought of another great example from the visual arts. Like Scarborough Fair/Canticle, it draws its power from being sort of the same but sort of different. It’s Edouard Manet’s “Luncheon on the Grass,” where images from classical art (the nude, the bather, the still life) are dropped into a scene with two men in contemporary attire. In a sense they all go together (it’s not a Picasso abstraction in an Edward Hopper painting), but that just raises questions of what the heck is going on. Why is there a bather and why is she so large? Why is there a woman sitting nude with two clothed men in casual conversation seemingly oblivious to her? Why is she staring at the viewer, as if to force us to acknowledge her humanity? It should be as unsettling as the two lyric tracks coexisting in Scarborough Fair. This counterpoint topic has really got me thinking! Thanks again for bringing it up!
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Hi Jung,
It was the U.S. version that we had, but that is the third track on the U.S. version, too. Trouble is, I can’t say for sure if my “favorite” was the third track on side one or the third track on side two, which I believe would be “I’m Looking Through You.” Each had its charms for little kid me, either the “la-la-la” refrain of “You Won’t See Me” or the organ bit (what Lisa brilliantly played on an electrified banjo!). Why I remember it was the third song (one whatever side) but can’t remember the song is one of life’s mysteries.
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Ahhh, She’s Leaving Home! I had pretty much forgotten that one until hearing it again a few years ago. I remember at the time just marveling at the amazing output of great songs from this one band, something I couldn’t appreciate as a kid lacking a frame of reference. But how many acts come on with a big hit, maybe two. Or maybe even one great album. And then, nothing. The Beatles only got better with time, with song after song after song after song.
This is a great cover. I’d love it if Mona and Lisa did a fresh recording in their studio for Volume 2 of the Duo Sessions when they can return to that.
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Thanks everyone for the welcome! May I just say you all have wonderful taste in music 😉 and I am proud to be among you in celebration of the grooviness that is the MonaLisa Twins. Now, how do we get the rest of the world to take notice?
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Yes, I saw a cover a few weeks ago. I don’t recall what it was. It was nice to see, but I figured it was just a random blip in the universe. But maybe we’re seeing the start of a trend? We shall see. Like everyone else here, I’m baffled as to why the Twins don’t have ten times the subscribers they have, at least, so seeing these sparks out there gives me hope that they may yet get the recognition they deserve. I’m also thinking perhaps they’ll get some collaboration offers after being on the John Sebastian/Arlen Roth CD, where they shined.
