Blog
Feb 19

Across The Universe

“Across the Universe” is a Beatles song  written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. I’ve always liked this song and playing it feels like meditating to me.

In February 1968, (52 years ago!) the Beatles convened at Abbey Road studios to record a single for release during their absence on their forthcoming trip to India. Paul McCartney had written “Lady Madonna”, and Lennon had “Across the Universe”.

Lennon referred to the song as perhaps the best, most poetic lyric he ever wrote: “It’s one of the best lyrics I’ve written. In fact, it could be the best. It’s good poetry, or whatever you call it, without chewin’ it. See, the ones I like are the ones that stand as words, without melody. They don’t have to have any melody, like a poem, you can read them.”

A truly cosmic song!

On 4 February 2008, at 00:00 UTC, NASA transmitted the Interstellar Message “Across the Universe” in the direction of the star Polaris, 431 light years from Earth.This was done to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the song’s recording, the 45th anniversary of the Deep Space Network (DSN), and the 50th anniversary of NASA. The idea was hatched by Beatles historian Martin Lewis, who encouraged all Beatles fans to play the track as it was beamed to the distant star. The event marked the first time a song had ever been intentionally transmitted into deep space, and was approved by McCartney, Yoko Ono, and Apple Corps.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy my scaled-down version of “Across The Universe.”

Dr. Weiss

Bosendorfer piano sound – For this recording I’m playing a Yamaha Clavinova – which has the same keyboard action as a traditional acoustic piano, but there are no strings. Pressing a key activates (in this case) a sound which was sampled from a Bösendorfer Imperial Concert Grand piano. Try listening to it with a good set of headphones! It sounds better than any piano I’ve ever owned!!