Inspired by the Rutles, the Utopia album Deface the Music, the first album by the Spongetones, the Back Pack's The Grey Album and the long-since litigated away Beaten Path, I've been writing a bunch of Beatle pastiches for years now, with the conceit that I write two tunes per British album (or the American Magical Mystery Tour album) that would essentially be as quintessentially "those albums" as I possibly could make them. And while I can strum maladroitly on my guitar the chords I need to figure out the tunes, I'm not much of a musician whatsoever, so this project has always just existed in my head. Collectively I call it the Applesauce Project.

And then with my new iMac came Garageband 4.

I present to you two rough demos -- with the exception of my vocals and my pathetic attempts to strum my acoustic, everything here is Garageband software instruments.

My Paul-Song-On-Side-B-Of-Mystery-Tour: Peach Blossom Hole

My Paul-Song-On-Rubber-Soul: Same Old Lonely Song

Good stuff!

I have heard these already and as I said, I'm very impressed. Definitely worth saving. and listening to over and over again. Uncle Twitchy... great job!

The second one seems like a close cousin to "You Won't See Me" in terms of chord progression and overall structure. Maybe that's why there aren't any Ooooooh-La-La-Las in the backing vocals (that I could hear, though I'm half-deaf) even though the song seems to really want them. Nice "In My Life" harpsichord solo.

I hear the Ooooooh-La-La-Las.

Guess I should plug in the headphones.

Headphones help a lot.

That is nothing less than balls-out fuckin' shiny.

My hat is off to you, brother John.

I revised the "harpsichord" sound on Same Old Lonely Song (can you tell I wrote that one in the early stages of my divorce?) -- who knew a software 12-string acoustic sounded more like the solo from "In My Life" than a software clavichord?

Twitch, I mentioned that I could practically hear the backing vocals on Peach Blossom Hole ... and now that I hear a version with them, YES, very nice, they really kick the tune up a notch.

Same Old Lonely Song sounds great, too. You've managed to nail what you were shooting for, I think. Really good tune.

Keep 'em coming.

I wrote a Beatles song once. It wasn't even good enough for Yoko Ono to record.

Nice, nice work.

That certainly never stopped her.

I downloaded these last night. Nice work!

Thanks, folks -- I'm so glad you're having even a fraction of the fun I'm having with these. I'm working on a Help! era tune at the moment... should have it done by the weekend.

Here's my planned cover:

One time I was listening to WBCN (Boston rock station) and they were playing a Yoko Ono song. About halfway through, the DJ lifted the needle off the record and broke in, saying "I can't do this to you people anymore."

True story.

Some of her stuff ain't that bad.

"And try a mushroom or three and see just what they do"

Classic stuff Uncle Twitchy! And an excellent cover as well. Very enjoyable! (Your vocals on "Same Old Lonely Song" remind me of Bread as well as).

Seriously some of the more enjoyable new music I have heard in recent weeks! Great job! Looking forward to the others!

Peach Blossom Hole is a mini-masterpiece, Unc. Both songs really hit the mark, though. Awesome!

I'm working on a "I Saw Her Standing There"/"Please Please Me" fusion, a "The Night Before"/"Help!" fusion and a "Norwegian Wood"/"Nowhere Man" fusion. I should have one of them done by the weekend.

I'd like to hear what you'd do with a "Get Back"/"Lady Madonna" fusion, actually. I think it'd sound pretty cool.