austinkleon:

While My Guitar Gently Beeps - The Beatles - Rock Band - NYTimes.com

I took this snapshot of a NYTimes pullquote a few years ago. Here’s Paul McCartney on Rock Band, emulating his heroes, and why The Beatles started writing their own tunes:

“Miming was always fun. When I was growing up, there was always, on TV, people who mimed to records. It was a thing people did. I always admired the way they had to learn every little nuance.” McCartney’s own musical beginnings weren’t too different from picking up Rock Band and pretending to be a star, he pointed out. “I emulated Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis. We all did.” The group might have kept going that way, he said, except that they’d find themselves backstage, “and we’d hear our complete set being played by the band before us.” That’s the reason, he said, he and Lennon started writing their own songs. “It’s grown to something so big, but it really just started as a way to avoid the other bands being able to play our set.”

I have vivid memories of making a fake guitar out of cardboard and a yardstick and playing along to Genesis records when I was a kid…and it’s funny, but I consider that part of learning to play the guitar! I mean, when you want to play an instrument so bad that you’ll make a fake one and pretend to play it…that’s when you know you’re on to something. (I did the same thing for drums with gallon tubs of ice cream and wooden spoons…)