The Beatles: Rock Band: Thinking about the final twenty songs

As of yesterday,  the list of known tracks on the disc for The Beatles: Rock Band has ballooned to 25, after having been stuck at 10 since June 1.  This means there are only 20 tracks remaining, a very exciting sign of how close the game is to being released but a little sobering for anyone with a laundry list of songs they would like to appear in the game.  While yesterday's announcement brought the extremely welcome news of songs like "Eight Days a Week," "Paperback Writer," "And Your Bird Can Sing," and "I've Got a Feeling," it also created less room for gems like "This Boy," "Hey Bulldog," and "Happiness is a Warm Gun."  To give myself a better idea of what the final 20 might look like, I created a few different scenarios, subject to a few simplifying assumptions.  I created a best case (in my opinion), likely, and worst case scenario, and the good news is that all three options, combined with the songs we already know, look really good.  Even the worst case (which I populated with some well-known songs to keep it somewhat realistic) is looking pretty good.   

Here are my assumptions:

• Each of the five venues will have a total of five songs.  That means that of the final 20, two will be in the Cavern Club, two at Ed Sullivan, three at Shea Stadium, one at Budokan, and two on the rooftop of Apple headquarters. 


• With "Get Back," "Dig a Pony," and "I've Got a Feeling" already announced, it sure looks like they're setting up a historically accurate rooftop concert.  This means that the final two songs for that venue will be "Don't Let Me Down" and "One After 909."


• Songs should feature vocals, guitar, bass, and drums.


• There should be a mix of lead singers and albums, though the lone remaining spot at Budokan made it tough to include Rubber Soul tracks.


• For the worst case scenario, the idea was not to pick my least favorite songs but songs that, by and large, pushed out something I would have wanted more.  Creating a list consisting of "Revolution 9," "Her Majesty," "Wild Honey Pie," "A Taste of Honey," and "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand" would have been pretty meaningless. 

Best case:

Please Please Me (Cavern Club)
From Me To You (Cavern Club)

She Loves You (Ed Sullivan)
This Boy (Ed Sullivan)

A Hard Day's Night (Shea Stadium)
Help! (Shea Stadium)
I'm Down (Shea Stadium)

If I Needed Someone (Budokan)

We Can Work It Out (Dreamscape)
Drive My Car (Dreamscape)
Nowhere Man (Dreamscape)
Rain (Dreamscape)
Strawberry Fields Forever (Dreamscape)
Happiness is a Warm Gun (Dreamscape)
Helter Skelter (Dreamscape)
Savoy Truffle (Dreamscape)
Hey Bulldog (Dreamscape)
Come Together (Dreamscape)

One After 909 (Rooftop)
Don't Let Me Down (Rooftop)

Likely:

Please Please Me (Cavern Club)
From Me to You (Cavern Club)

All My Loving (Ed Sullivan)
She Loves You (Ed Sullivan)

A Hard Day's Night (Shea Stadium)
Help! (Shea Stadium)
I'm Down (Shea Stadium)

Nowhere Man (Budokan)

Rain (Dreamscape)
Got to Get You Into My Life (Dreamscape)
Sgt. Pepper's (Reprise)/A Day in the Life (Dreamscape)
Hello Goodbye (Dreamscape)
While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Dreamscape)
Helter Skelter (Dreamscape)
Hey Bulldog (Dreamscape)
Come Together (Dreamscape)
Let It Be (Dreamscape)

One After 909 (Rooftop)
Don't Let Me Down (Rooftop)

Worst case (really a misnomer; I like so many of these songs):

Love Me Do (Cavern Club)
Money (That's What I Want) (Cavern Club)

All My Loving (Ed Sullivan)
Act Naturally (Ed Sullivan)

Ticket to Ride (Shea Stadium)
Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby (Shea Stadium)
She's a Woman (Shea Stadium)

She Said She Said (Budokan)

Doctor Robert (Dreamscape)
I Want to Tell You (Dreamscape)
When I'm Sixty-Four (Dreamscape)
Blue Jay Way (Dreamscape)
While My Guitar Gently Weeps [I just think this one has to be in the game] (Dreamscape)
Why Don't We Do It In the Road? (Dreamscape)
Yer Blues (Dreamscape)
Helter Skelter [See "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"] (Dreamscape)
Come Together [See "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"] (Dreamscape)
The Ballad of John and Yoko (Dreamscape)

One After 909 (Rooftop)
Don't Let Me Down (Rooftop)

Enter Sandmen

 

 

Here are a few pictures to show off the start of our latest home project, our kitchen renovations. First, we had new countertops installed. The pictures make it difficult to see the true colors but it is a really nice swirl of deep brown, cream and bits of black. We also got a new faucet and deeper sink! We knew we wanted to do something with the cabinets but as soon as the countertop installation was completed, they started to look more orange and outdated.  We decided to sand and stain the cabinets darker (rosewood) to better compliment our new countertops. When we were halfway through I decided to take a few pictures to show the contrast between the old and new cabinet color.

 

It was the weekend of Father’s Day when we decided to start the kitchen and we put my dad to work! Mom couldn’t make it this time, so my dad came up to help us get started on this big project. My brother, Dad, Daniel and I started sanding at 3pm on Saturday and decided to take a break over hamburgers and beer late that evening. Steven, Jerome and Laura came over to visit that night and we were exhausted. It was so hot and we all wondered aloud why we didn’t tackle this project in the winter. Do not try this at home (especially in June/July) unless you are prepared to have your kitchen a mess for a few weeks, like to sweat, and enjoy eating sawdust!! I’ll admit it is more work than we thought.

 

 

 

With all of our weekend travel I am not sure how long it will take us to finish the top half. Once the staining is completed we will be learning how to install a tiled backsplash. Any tips you have, Internet, on making our next and last project as painless as possible we would appreciate. We just have to learn to be patient with the mess as we are living with our kitchen contents on the dining room table for now. I would say end of July would be our goal. Stay turned to see completed pictures of our kitchen, and once we are finished with that, we’ll be moving on to the master bath for our last big project on this house before we invite our realtor over!