Posted on 06/04/2007 8:37:51 AM PDT by 3AngelaD
Yes, it's been 40 years exactly since Sgt. Pepper, having labored the previous 20 years teaching his band to play, arranged for its debut in full psychedelic regalia. He leveraged a little help from his friends, notably...
A hundred years from now, musicologists say, Beatles songs will be so well known that every child will learn them as nursery rhymes, and most people won't know who wrote them...
Skillful composers play with these expectations, alternately meeting and violating them in interesting ways. In my laboratory, we've found that listening to a familiar song that you like activates the same parts of the brain as eating chocolate, having sex or taking opiates. There really is a sex, drugs and rock-and-roll part of the brain: a network of neural structures including the nucleus accumbens and the amygdala...
Today the Beatles catalogue is loved cross-culturally -- the product of a six-year burst of creativity unparalleled in modern music. The Beatles incorporated classical elements into rock so seamlessly that it is easy to forget that string quartets and Bach-like countermelodies and bass lines did not always populate pop. Music changed more between 1963 and 1969 than it has in the 37 years since, with the Beatles among the architects of that change.
Paul McCartney may be the closest thing our generation has produced to Franz Schubert -- a master of melody, writing tunes anyone can sing, songs that seem to have been there all along... McCartney writes with similar universality. His "Yesterday" has been recorded by more musicians than any other song in history. Its stepwise melody is deceptively complex, drawing from outside the diatonic scale so smoothly that anyone can sing it, yet few theorists can agree on exactly what it is that McCartney has done...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I’m feeling soooooooooo old!
You and me both! ;^)
Me three. And I remember where I was when I first heard that album with a lot of nostalgia.
That was one of the most bogus “controversies” ever. A classic case of the habitually offended taking one phrase out of context, ignoring the rest of the message (which they probably would have agreed with) and using their fake outrage to get famous.
Thank you for writing exactly what I was going to say.
John Lennon was definitely not my favorite but he got a raw deal. It may in fact have contributed to some of his ridiculous statements later in life since he felt burnt/betrayed by the press and decided to fight fire with fire.
In addition, the “controversy” gave the press an appetite for he said/she said “journalism” which continues to this day with absolute trifles like the O’Donnell/Trump feud.
If that’s all you know about the Beatles, poor you. You have missed out on a great deal of good music for no reason. And it was a bogus, famously out of context quote to begin with.
I’m not even a Beatles fan and yet when the topic comes up I get irritated. I think it has a lot to do with my general distrust of anti-defemation leagues. Whenever I hear about a boycott I look for a full copy of whatever “inspired” them and 99% of the time it turns out to be completely silly.
“..Nobody was really sure if he was from the house of Paul..”
(Just for your tin foil conspiracy nuts! WE KNOW WHO YOU ARE!)
;^)
I am certain the song says, “Nobody was really sure if he was from the House of Lords.” I am not a tinfoil conspiracy nut, but I’d like to hear about this one. I remember the “Paul is dead” controversy, during which Paul went on live TV to say, “I’m not dead.” But I haven’t heard about this one.
Amen.
I love the Beatles for a number of reasons. Lyrically, the early Beatles are like readings from the Bible of Love. Brilliant insights about human love with great music accompanying a wide range of emotions. I prefer Lennon to McCartney for melody and lyric insight. Yes, McCartney may be like Schubert — both wrote in the key of F according to the author — but “Yesterday” was inspired more by Paul’s dads jazz background. This comes from Paul himself. The reason for a classical comparison has probably more to do with George Martin who produced and recorded classical music before the Beatles and did most of the Beatles arrangements.
It also came out this year. As did The Pink Floyd's Piper At The Gates Of Dawn and The Pretty Things' S.F.Sorrow (an acknowledged influence on Pete Townsend's Tommy). These two albums were recorded at Abbey Road Studios concurrently with Sgt. Pepper's and even shared production staff. 
.jpg/200px-The_Pretty_Things-S.F._Sorrow_(album_cover).jpg)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.F._Sorrow (note the US release came long after the intial UK release)
Want to feel OLD?
THIS album is 30 years old.
My mom used that comment as an excuse to hate the Beatles as well. Of course I now have half a dozen or so Beatles songs on my iPod, so the apple fell waaaay off the tree. :)
Imagine if there were no Beatles
it’s easy if you try
No Beatlesongs on the radio or telly
And no Yoko too...
And what is out of context about the atheist one world utopian notions of Imagine?
LOL. I hear there are hundreds of thousands of groups springing up in South America, Africa, and Asia who are studying the lives of the Beatles and sharing their message with others.
Oh, and don’t forget the many people worldwide who are risking their lives and being imprisoned, tortured and killed for the sake of the Beatles.
But it wouldn’t have given us probably the best song parody I’ve ever heard Rush air...
Imagine there’s no liberals
It’s easy if you can..
...No environmental wackos
Lying to our kids
Yoo hoo hoo!
:)
I think that there were bootleg Beatle records stamped out in the USSR using old x-rays (they were probably flexi records).
As I said on Friday’s thread, “Sgt. Pepper’s” is a fantastic album, but I do not think it is good as “Revolver” and I promise you it is not as good as “Abbey Road” (especially side 2).
you can call me handsome, you can call me dick, but don’t CALL ME ANIMAL!!!!!
-Handsome Dick Manitoba intro to guest vocals with MC5/DKT on the track “Call Me Animal”.
Manitoba’s is a cool bar, been there last year. Lots of cool rock photos. You’d like it!
I’m still a Sex Pistols fan. How sad is that....
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