Every Beatles song ever, all played at once: All Together Now

All Together Now - Everything the Beatles ever did. by ramjac

Ramjac, a British DJ, has produced a mashup of the whole Beatles catalogue. Ramjac's mix, "All Together Now," layers every single Beatles song atop one another, in reverse order of length, so that for the first few seconds, all you hear is "Revolution 9" (the longest song in the songbook), then "Hey Jude" atop it, and "She's So Heavy," and then more and more, until it crashes all together at the last note, with 226 tracks all colliding.

It's more conceptually interesting than musically enjoyable. Hank Handy's 40-track Beatles mashup is a better choice if that's what you're after.

ramjac's sounds on SoundCloud (via DVICE)

• [Hanglyman]

  I’ve done a few of these myself, like all the James Bond songs and a bunch of bombastic movie themes from films like Jurassic Park, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars, Robocop, Lord of the Rings, etc. Never thought to do the reverse order of length thing, though! And nothing near as many songs as this… it all meshes together into white noise eventually.

• [annoyingmouse]

  I want a live cover version.  How many musicians do we think it would take? 

  • [tyger11]

    It would take one modern jazz trio, playing one of their regular pieces. Sounds just like this.

• [annoyingmouse]

  Actually now that I think about it in a typically nerdy pedantic way, given the loop on the run out groove at the end of A Day in the Life we should never actually reach the noise or, in fact, any other songs.  This track should just be A Day in the Life playing for an infinite length of time. 

  • [lauriok]

    I began to think about reversing the songs, then stacking them in reverse order of length… and then being baffled by where Day In A Life would start.

• [the_engineer]

  This is horrible. I’m sorry I subjected my ears to any of this after the first 30 seconds…. The beatles made good music, why destroy it like this?

  • [galois]

    It’s not destroying anything; it’s creating something new. Something new that hardly sounds like the Beatles, even though they are the only source for the material. It’s pretty interesting if you ask me. Also, I love how after the gradually increasing noise, all of a sudden the songs start dying out right at the end. Shows how often the fade-out technique is used.

    • [the_engineer]

      I must just not have any appreciation for art as art. I understand that indeed this is a creation of sorts but really, does it say anything at all or stand on its own as art? I would argue that it does not, especially due to in my opinion its lack of being able to convey any message whatsoever. Maybe pure chaos is just beyond my scope of art but since it doesn’t quite get to pure white noise at any point and just sounds totally awful I’ve got a tough time standing behind this in the format it’s presented in. It’s possible if someone put together a “live” version where each song was doing its on thing on speakers in meatspace and I could walk among them then I might feel very differently about it. Truly though this mishmash of good songs into what’s basically just crap is horrifying to my ears.

      • [galois]

        See? It conveyed a message of horror! :)

      • [freshacconci]

        Well, you really either like it or you don’t. Like Cory says, it’s more of an interesting idea than an enjoyable listening experience. Aggregate noise can be beautiful, and The Beatles were no stranger to that concept.

  • [Chezedog]

    Destroy?  Nothing has been destroyed.  Don’t listen to it if you don’t like it.

• [tré]

  It almost feels like, right after the peak (8:11 or so), I should hear the first chord of “Breathe.”

• [Marktech]

  Y’know, Ringo has never sounded better.

• [Mari Lwyd]

  Comment at the 7m59s mark:
  “Hmm. So that’s what a tornado made of garbage disposals sounds like.” – Patrick Barrow
  http://soundcloud.com/ramjac/beatlescompletebkwds/comment-32273043

• [snagglepuss]

  This is SO perfect. I’m a volunteer DJ at a local community-access station here in Central Illinois, and I avoid Top 40 dreck as much as possible – Which gets me plenty of phone calls asking me “Why don’t you play more BEATLES, maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan?” Now, I have a response. Can’t wait.

  • [zebbart]

    Ah, how did you post this comment from the year 1965, which is when you must live if you can find the Beatles on the radio?

    • [snagglepuss]

      You’re just not looking in the right places, chum.

  • [Paul Chivers]

    superlike!

  • [ComradeQuestions]

    Yeah, when are people gonna stop overplaying the Top 40 dreck like Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas, and The Beatles???

  • [know1]

    Any DJ who would describe the Beatles as “Top 40 dreck” doesn’t deserve to spin records on a turntable.

• [mat catastrophe]

  The only thing worse than listening to any one Beatles song would be listening to all of them. Pass.

  • [freshacconci]

    Nobody’s holding a gun to your head in either case, are they?

• [walter davis]

  thanks for introducing me to the mash-up that actually sounds good. like you said, conceptually this is cool, but the other mash-up sounds amazing. the part starting at 1:03 is just amazing

• [adamnvillani]

  Actually, “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” precedes “Hey Jude,” not the other way around. Cory, you may want to correct that in your description. Anyway, after those, I can distinctly hear “It’s All Too Much,” “A Day in the Life,” and “Helter Skelter” come in, but after that it all blends together. I know “Within You Without You” is supposed to be in there, but I can’t pick it out.

• [Macgruder]

  Starting with Revolution 9 so the end is better than the beginning. 

• [David Yoon]

  Wasn’t there something with every song on Pet Sounds played at once? I can’t find it (after a whopping 3 seconds of effort), but it sounded like a vortex of souls getting sucked into the bloody maw of Hell.

• [Stephen M]

  This what the white noise is on the audio spectrum….every sound  made in the universe from the beginning of time to till the end all mashed together in one instant…..but occasionally a person may hear a ghost in the machine that makes sense to them.

  Okay the beatles mashup sent me insane.

• [corpunk]

  If you play it backwards your brain implodes.

• [andrew100258]

  Oh, I think it is awful. I have been listening up to 1:58 and then I pressed “stop”. I like The Beatles, but I do not like this experiment at all.

  With best
  regards, Andrew Shapovalov
  Kiev, Ukraine

  http://www.playcast.ru/view/1329185/e525fa76523dafd0b309ed44389cf5e209034653pl

• [Christian Buchner]

  So how many counts of copyright infringement do we have here? ;)

• [3eff_jeff]

  There are Death Metal bands that would kill to sound like the last two and a half minutes.

  Ok, I think my favorite Beetles song is now ALL THE SONGS!

• [spacemunky]

  This is from that episode where Data studies the Beatles because Geordi said it would help him appreciate music. Later, he recreates them on the Holodeck and attempts to speak Liverpudlian.

• [zebbart]

  I found all the links to the Hank Handy mix to be dead. The torrent still works.

  • [jerwin]

    This link still works:Beatles Mashup Medley Hank Handy.mp3

• [Jason Scarpelli]

  Sounds like crap lol

• [David Forbes]

  The noise presented here is not white noise. The spectral distribution of energy is much different. This stuff also pulses, due to the presence of the rock n roll beat. If you want white noise, tune your FM radio to the space between stations.

• [hadlockk]

  I’d be interested to hear a lossless version; I think around the 5:30 mark you start bumping up against the MP3 format’s limits; you definitely start hearing some (mostly?) artifacting towards the last third of the arrangement.

  • [Paul Chivers]

    The lossless sounds awesome. I’m wondering how vinyl is going to sound :)

• [msbpodcast]

  “Ahh Look at all the lovely people” from Eleanor Rigby should have been audible right from the start.

  I remember all the DJs being pissed that this was a song without an intro.

  • [jerwin]

    Eleanor Rigby is just over 2 minutes long.

  • [robuluz]

    “Ahh Look at all the lovely people”

     
    lonely people. Eleanor Rigby is about lonely people.

• [Daneel]

  I prefer The Farm’s version.

• [C.J. Hayes]

  I started to like this around 4 minutes, and after 6 if you turn it down a bit it does approach white noise although, as David Forbes said, it does pulse.  I think there’s a point where it’s hard to distinguish any particular song, but where you can still identify sounds, and that’s pretty cool.  It was almost frightening.

• [Eddie Perkins]

  I just listened to every Beatles song at once. It’s like I’m living in the future.

  • [Paul Chivers]

    its tomorrow already

• [Eric Scheffel]

  Well, it took 43 years, but someone’s finally created a Beatles song worse than Revolution 9.

• [tsa]

  I like it. I wonder how much I have to pay to the Dutch RIAA now that I’ve listened to it.

• [bo1n6bo1n6]

  If I smelled some burning hair right now I’d probably go get checked for a stroke… 

• [Nathaniel]

  And thus we learn that the optimum number of Beatles songs to listen to at the same time is more than 10 but less than about 35.

  • [Paul Chivers]

    perfect

• [josefina]

  With a noisy mashup of all Beatles songs, together with a noisy mashup of all Beatles songs *except*, say, “Come Together,” it might be possible to recover “Come Together” intact.  Quick, update the copyright laws!

• [Hopeful_Greis]

  Finally, a version tailored for Star Trek’s Data.

• [snagglepuss]

  A few years ago, I compiled and broadcast an all-covers version of the White Album – It got a response very similar to what I’ve seen in here today. A few people hated it (For tinkering with something they’d prefer remain inviolate and pristine), a majority who were tickled and intrigued (And appreciated the idea of dovetailing the Beatles’ own experimentalism and artistic impulses with that of other musical artists), and a distinct minority who wanted nothing to do with the Beatles in any form (And who couldn’t be impressed with any concept of Beatles music whatsoever.).

  Which, one could argue, could indicate that the Beatles’ influence and accessibility seem to be roughly the same as when they were extant and putting out new music. Interesting.

  • [Marktech]

    A few years ago, I compiled and broadcast an all-covers version of the White Album

    I’d love to hear that, but x years ago I’d probably have been aghast: when I was in my early teens, all of us cool kids liked to think that one of the distinguishing features of serious pop music was that nobody could really cover it.  Yeah, I know, I know, but we were fourteen or so; and the music we were listening to was mostly finely-wrought prog rock.  Ironic, really.

• [Steve McL]

  This is very cool. A few years ago, I sped up all of The Beatles’ albums by 800% and compiled them into a one-hour recording. You can find it here: http://boingboing.net/2007/10/09/all-the-beatles-uk-a.html

  • [Paul Chivers]

    800% VERY cool Steve, sounds fantastic.

• [snagglepuss]

  To be honest, I’ll take “Metal Machine Music” over this any old day – Conceptualy, it’s much funnier, and just plain rocks harder.

• [Skeezix Chaco]

  now tell me how to take it all apart. My Beatles’ records burned in a fire.

• [Carl Jacobson]

  Cool, this reminds me of my Ambient mashup, Monk’s Ghost which combines all 12 versions of Round Midnight that I had in my library: http://soundcloud.com/carljacobson/monks-ghost

• [magicdragonfly]

  Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.

  • [Tim Drage]

    and just because you shouldn’t do something doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.

• [Madison Kaye Saxton]

  This actually managed to make me paranoid.

• [Madison Kaye Saxton]

  Can I get this in Led Zeppelin?

• [Jonathan Arkell]

  Absolutely brilliant.

  But then, I am one of the rare people who loves “The Worlds most unwanted song”.

  • [zebbart]

    I thought everyone loved that! Conversely I thought everyone hated the World Most Wanted Song. Hmmm.

• [Nasicournus]

  Another lovely example of copy+pasting as art. Why create when you can rehash?

  • [Tim Drage]

    unironically ^this

  • [OtherMichael]

    And yet you keep copy+pasting other people’s words and phrases instead of creating your own, you hypocrite.

• [snagglepuss]

  Marktech –

  “Back In The USSR”, live, the Dead Kennedys
  “Dear Prudence”, Siouxsie & the Banshees
  “Glass Onion”, the Godless Wicked Creeps
  “Wild Honey Pie”, the Pixies
  “The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill”, the Punkles
  “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, Todd Rundgrenn
  “Happiness Is A Warm Gun”, World Party

  “Martha My Dear”, Vashti Bunyan & Max Richter
  “I’m So Tired”, the Plums
  “Blackbird”, Colin Linden
  “Piggies”, Pumajaw
  “Rocky Raccoon”, the Scooters
  “Don’t Pass Me By”, the Ribeye Brothers
  “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road”, Lydia Lunch & Clint Ruin
  “I Will”, Walter Clevenger & the Dairy Kings
  “Julia”, Bongwater

  “Birthday”, Underground Sunshine
  “Yer Blues”, Lucky Peterson
  “Mother Nature’s Son”, Harry Nilsson
  “Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey”, the Hoodoo Gurus
  “Sexy Sadie”, Paul Weller
  “Helter Skelter”, “live” *snort*, Alice Donut
  “Long Long Long”, Low

  “Revolution”, Billy Bragg
  “Honey Pie”, A Cuckoo
  “Savoy Truffle”, Pete Greenwood
  “Cry Baby Cry”, Throwing Muses
  “Revolution #9″, Kurt Hoffman’s Band of Weeds
  “Good Night”, Matthew Sweet

  I would’ve re-broadcast it this weekend, but I’m temporarily off the air while I convalesce from knee surgery. Maybe next year….

  As for “Dark Side Of The Moon” covers – You can’t go wrong with the Squirrels’ “The Not-So-Bright-Side Of The Moon”.

  And, speaking of “impossible” covers and “finely-wrought prog” – You should hunt down the Bad Plus’ version of “Tom Sawyer”. Killer.

• [snagglepuss]

  Know1, and ComradeQuestions – I DO avoid Top 40 dreck, including Beatles songs that have been played into the goddamn ground, which meets my personal criteria for “Top 40 dreck” – If that’s alright with either of you.

  And even better if it isn’t.

• [Nigel Humphries]

  My ears have let me down here.

• [JohnnyLA]

  Ladies and Gentlemen..after hearing this clip, we at the RIAA must fine you.. $2,100,232.21 for playing the entire Beatles catalog illegally.

  Have a nice day.. :)