I got this - the double LP 'All This and WW2' yesterday, and I'm not sure I'd heard of it before, and it's one of the most bizarre cultural artifacts I've ever seen. An album of Beatles covers that was the soundtrack to a movie of WW2 footage from real life and war films.
It's the lyric book. Each page has the lyric of a song, a cartoon of the cover artist, a tinted WW2 image.
It's from 1978, a very strange time where all the things were aligned very oddly. Lots of 'flirting with Nazi symbols' at the edge of popular culture. An obsession with WW2 in Britain ...
The music industry has disappeared into a world of lavish LPs. Renewed interest in B&W film.
The Beatles are old hat, but big business, but not talking to each other, but their songs are now fully canon.
I was going to call this album a convergence of all these forces, but I think it's a divergence. Literally every element this project is made of is at its nadir.
It's not that I can't see what they were thinking, it's that every thought came from and at the worst place it might have.
If you want an example of 'something they wouldn't make now', this is it. I encourage you to dive into an internet search about this very, very odd thing.
Gee whiz, this is the cultural artifact from 1978 I remember growing up with: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sesame_...
Saw the cover and thought "Ah yes, unofficial Doctor Who merch using a riff on the Diamond logo." Except no.
The film is...off putting but an interesting watch. I love that soundtrack though.
I remember the film being shown on BBC2 during the 1980s. Lots of WW2 footage playing with Beatles songs over the top. Like those old film montages backing old songs on Whistle Test in the 70s. Never seen since. Probably with good reason.
