"LJ Plays The Beatles"
Laurence Juber ("LJ" to his friends and fans) is probably best known for his lead guitar work in Paul McCartney and Wings during the late 1970's. He can be heard on songs like "Coming Up", "Getting Closer", and "Goodnight Tonight". But, after McCartney's arrest in Japan for marijuana possession in 1979, Wing's world tour was cancelled and Paul disbanded the band for good. Over the last 20 years, LJ has created an impressive musical career. He has played on many studio recordings as a session player, including Alan Parson's Project. Since 1990, LJ has released an impressive amount of studios releases that features his impressive finger-style playing on 12-string acoustic guitar. His latest release is "LJ Plays The Beatles". Being a total Beatle's fanatic, I'm usually pretty critical when it comes to other musicians covering Beatle and solo Beatle songs. Some of the more dreadful releases include Stars on 45, George Martin's "In My Life" and with a few favorable exceptions, the Lennon tribute "Working Class Hero". I guess if you actually played with a Beatle, it's probably a pass to at least attempt to cover some Beatle tunes. LJ's tribute to the Beatles is, by far, the best release of covered Beatle songs that I've had the chance to hear!
LJ's ability to play bass lines on acoustic guitar as well as handling the melody of these songs is very impressive. This is best represented on "I Saw Her Standing There", the opening track on the cd. LJ perfectly mimics McCartney's bass playing throughout the song while keeping up with the fast paced melody. He actually pulls off "Strawberry Fields Forever" without missing many of the cool sound effects that makes this song so appealing in the first place. "This Boy" reminds me more of the instrumental version heard in the movie "A Hard Day's Night". It's a little jazzier than the Beatle's version, but still remains true to the original. "Here Comes the Sun" sounds like George Harrison unplugged, while "Oh Darling" is colored by some clever blues licks. My favorite track on the cd is "You Won't See Me". It actually takes a while to figure out what song he's playing, since it's a fairly obscure Beatles tune in the first place. The song starts out quite softly, but ends with some pretty intense strumming as a finish. This song is the best example on how LJ put in some of his own personal touches to each track while maintaining the integrity of the original's melodies and sound.
There are fourteen tracks in all on "LJ Plays the Beatles". He was good in his song selection by covering almost every era of the Beatle's eight year recording period. On LJ's "Mosiac" cd, he also covered the song "Rain". If you enjoy this cd, you may want to check out "Mosaic" which also features great original music. LJ always seems to show up at Beatlefest Chicago every summer. He's always the biggest draw during this three day event!
