Butchering the Beatles: A Headbashing Tribute

An unconditional 360 degree turn from the style of The Beatles, "Butchering the Beatles: A Headbashing Tribute" puts hard rock twists on some of the band's most heralded songs some with success and some with disaster. Hard and dark rock artists like Alice Cooper, Billy Idol, Poison guitarist C.C. DeVille and original bass player for Guns N' Roses Duff McKagen bring their own brand of chaos to the McCartney/Lennon compositions.

The version of "Hey Bulldog" has a much darker arc to it exhibited by Cooper which makes lines like, "Some kind of happiness is measured out in miles, what makes you think you're something special when you smile/jackknife in your sweaty hands," sound very sinister. "Back in the USSR," has pounding drums but the lyrics such as "Back in the USSR, you don't know who you are," don't resonate as well. The depiction of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" adheres to the original's psychedelic bend with its reverberating lyrics. The version of "Revolution" has a country rock feel to it, which puts a new spin, this touchstone Beatles song that had more of an R&B dash to it.

Finally, the rendition of "Hey Jude" which was originally written by Paul McCartney to help ease Lennon's son Julian's anguish at his parents divorce strives to rival the heartbreak of the original but is sorely lacking. In the end, "Butchering the Beatles: A Headbashing Tribute" does have some zigzags on The Beatles classics but for uncompromising fans, remaking these songs is an insult to a band that changed the face of music forever.