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Baker's Dozen

A World Where Everything Is Cool: Joel Gion's Baker’s Dozen
Harry Sword , February 7th, 2024 10:41

From carrying a Marvin Gaye cassette in his pocket to reciting the entirety of Easy Rider, and the glory of Psychedelic Brazil to the real Beatles, Joel Gion of the Brian Jonestown Massacre talks to Harry Sword about the 13 records that mean the most to him.

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The Beatles – Revolver

I can’t do a list without it. I was turned onto the Beatles when I was five. They were the band, they were the ones that got me to where I’m sitting talking to you now. I will say that I find it a little bizarre – to the point of conspiracy by the man! – that when they look back in the American mainstream, they tend to look at The White Album as the pinnacle, when they weren’t even getting along so well by that point, they weren’t the cohesive unit that they once were and a lot of the material feels like they are performing as session musicians on each other's songs. For some reason, if they’re going to appear in a video game or something it’ll always be late period Beatles, where they’re not even having fun anymore. This is The Beatles when they were still having fun, when they were all in the studio working on the songs together, when they were cool as shit. This was The Beatles that the world fell in love with.