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This is only one part of his entire session, so there is even more to be published at a later time. That 'more' includes more recordings of Vinnie, but also of artists like Michael Schack, Luke Holland and Jordan West during the two-day #TotallyDrums event at Roland HQ in Los Angeles. Of course, many other Roland artists were present that day, like Thomas Lang, Gregg Bissonette and Aaron Spears.
So, what are we watching?
In the video, Vinnie says: "It is [The Beatles]! I had to, I had to" referring to the importance of The Beatles for him. But also because of his endeavor playing Roland drums, pads and loopers at this session. Vinnie wanted to rise to the occasion, and feel fearless again, as he explained right after his performance. Below is more information about I want you (She's So Heavy), just because reading about music is cool.
Vinnie Colaiuta: The Beatles - I want you (She's So Heavy)
Vinnie Colaiuta plays a personal orchestration of the Beatles song from their 1969 album 'Abbey Road'. Lennon wrote the song about his love for Yoko Ono. For reference, below is also a Spotify embed of the track.
About I want you (She's So Heavy)
A first nice-to-know is that Ringo Starr plays congas on the original recording as well, added later though, on 20 April 1969.
Vinnie stays in the 6/8 theme of I want you, while the original song switches from 6/8 to 4/4 and throughout the song. He is building it up in a crescendo of six minutes to culminate in an explosion of virtuosity outside of his comfort zone in electronic drums. In essence he is basically soloing over the last few minutes of the original song.
Watch Vinnie at 03:08 when he makes a fill, but in his eyes he didn't make it correctly. And yells at Thomas Lang, who is nearby the stage: "Almost!" Vinnie is a genius, a living legend, embossing perfection as a musician that all drummers seek all their lives. Yet, with Thomas Lang and Gregg Bissonette in the room he gets a little insecure but he is still as fearless as ever!
More factoids
According to the YouTube credits, the song was released on: 26 September 1969. Naturally by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Richard Starkey. And of course, George Martin as their main producer. Fun fact here is that Alan Parsons is mentioned as the Recording Second Engineer. Parsons actually began his career at Abbey Road Studios as a tape operator and assistant engineer. He was also the acclaimed engineer on Pink Floyd's 'The Dark Side of the Moon' and worked on many more albums before forming The Alan Parsons Project.
Ian MacDonald, a British music critic and author, who wrote in his book 'Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties' does not mention Alan Parsons at all. However, in this book, in which he discusses the music of the Beatles and the band's relationship to the social and cultural changes from that era, he is very outspoken and verbose about the meaning of the song from John Lennon's perspective.
Ian MacDonald about I want you (She's So Heavy):
Lennon's passion for Ono had shaken him to the core. His long-dreamed-of erotic mother had finally arrived and the reality was almost too much for him. Sexually addicted to her, he was helplessly dependent, a predicament grindingly explicit in his chord sequence: the sickening plunge from E7 to B flat 7; the augmented A that drags his head up to make him go through it all again; the hammering flat ninth that collapses, spent, on the song's insatiable D minor arpeggio. Nightmarishly tormented, this is a musical tryst with a succubus. No wonder the lyric consists of the same phrase over and over again. Lennon is literally obsessed.
MacDonald later decides that the song "doesn't come off," which Vinnie definitely refutes with his performance in the video above.
McCartney's pitching and yawing bass in the verse/chorus is appropriate, but his glissandi in the arpeggio section take the bottom out of the sound. All told, I Want You is a bold lunge at something seriously adult which, perhaps doomed by its own desperation, doesn't come off.
Vinnie Colaiuta plays
I want you (She's So Heavy) on Spotify
