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The sad decline of music: Cole Porter vs. The Beatles
http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=767 ^ | William Briggs

Posted on 07/16/2009 7:11:34 AM PDT by mattstat

Paul McCartney has once again crept upon our shores. He was, of course, vanguard in the original “British Invasion”, which occurred in early 1964. Now, an invasion is something to be resisted, to be fought off, to be repelled. Sadly—quite, quite sadly—we had no Winston Churchill on our shores to boost our morale with stirring words like these:

'We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in New York, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Culture, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender";

and so the invasion was a success, our surrender quick, our cultural defeat total. All that is left is rebellion.

Here is the first of many examples of what appeasement and acquiescence has wrought. Try not to sit too close to your screen when reading the ride-hand column. There is a danger of, what they call on the professional eating circuit, a reversal...

(Excerpt) Read more at wmbriggs.com ...


TOPICS: Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: beatles; coleporter; getoffmylawn; paulmccartnet
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To: mattstat

Wow, I don’t even like the Beatles and I think this guy is whiny. There’s plenty of good music out there, just gotta go find it.


81 posted on 07/16/2009 9:09:11 AM PDT by discostu (Jeff's imagination has gone beyond the fringe of audience comprehension)
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To: Ev Reeman
Thank God we still have country music which I like although not the same way that I really enjoyed the classic country music artists such as Eddy Arnold, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Loretta Lynn, Hank Williams, Johnny Horton, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Patsy Cline and Tammy Wynette just to name a few.

I found a local classic country station which is about all I listen to now. My three kids ride around enough in my truck that they are beginning to know and enjoy classic country. In the past week, I had the following conversations with each of them.

My 7-year-old daughter asked me to put in the CD with "Johnny Cash and the other singers." I realize that she meant the radio channel.

My 10-year-old told me and his brother that the best song ever is "Big Iron by Johnny Cash." I corrected him and told him that it was Marty Robbins. "Oh, but it still the best song ever" was his response.

My 13-year-old who is self-conscious about his singing (despite having a nice voice) told me he would "sing all the time if I could sing like Johnny Cash."

82 posted on 07/16/2009 9:12:05 AM PDT by CommerceComet
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To: mattstat

The quality of popular music ebbs and flows over long periods. In the late 19th and early 20th century opera was popular music. Verdi’s funeral attracted crowds that were more astonishing than those that showed up for Jackson’s funeral, particularly given the relative lack of mass media to hype the event and that Verdi’s music was not available to the masses by radio, television, MP3 player, etc.

Those who claim that today’s popular music on average is as good as the popular music of prior periods are just indulging in a nihilistic relativism. It is hard to conceive of popular music as technically and morally contemptible as today’s popular music. Any claim of some sort of equivalence between rap and hip hop with big band music, for example, would be as contemptible as claiming that a Monet is no better than my 6 year-olds finger painting.

Comparing specific composers and performers can be more difficult. The Beatles did have some pleasantly lyrical melodies, even though as performers they lacked skill, discipline, or ability - or perhaps all three. But none of the Beatles’ work measures up to the quality of even a simple piece like Chopin’s Walze in A minor. I admit, by the way, that the comparison with Chopin is a bit unfair. Chopin was a rare musical genius; none of the Beatles were. To give the Beatles their due, as popular music since “Rock Around the Clock” goes, some of the Beatles work is really pretty good.

I won’t enter the fray in the discussion about Cole Porter vs. the Beatles because I don’t know a lot of Cole Porter, but it is clear that a couple of the posters have inflated views of “their” music simply because they grew up with it AND it is all they know. I have “grown up” with many types of music and have grown through several types of musical immaturity. I’ve also performed everything from rock to classical.

Music is a good bellweather for the condition of a culture. What popular music since at least the 60’s -and especially today’s popular music - indicates about the culture is that we have entered a period of extraordinary moral degradation.


83 posted on 07/16/2009 9:13:15 AM PDT by achilles2000 (Shouting "fire" in a burning building is doing everyone a favor...whether they like it or not)
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To: PGR88
Remember that the Beatles were simply emulating and re-packaging their heros in America - Delta Blues, Elvis, Buddy Holly.

....Buck Owens.

84 posted on 07/16/2009 9:14:37 AM PDT by TexasNative2000 (Bush was the dumbest sounding smart President, and Obama is the smartest sounding dumb President.)
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To: Renegade

Why would anybody who doesn’t like the Beatles watch the Circe Beatles show? And why would any straight male watch any Circe show?


85 posted on 07/16/2009 9:19:46 AM PDT by discostu (Jeff's imagination has gone beyond the fringe of audience comprehension)
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To: Travis T. OJustice

I think he’s channeling the former Surgeon General of The United States, Jocelyn Elders, who actually said “Eric Clapner” during a press conference/briefing.


86 posted on 07/16/2009 9:33:24 AM PDT by SJSAMPLE
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To: discostu

Watch the show . You’ll want to go to the gym. Beer thirty every day a man does not make . ( However, 14 yr. old Chinese girls might turn you on )


87 posted on 07/16/2009 9:50:58 AM PDT by Renegade (You go tell my buddies)
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To: discostu

BTW its Cirque not Circe . Don’t FK with Boomers . We will rip your heart out .


88 posted on 07/16/2009 9:53:08 AM PDT by Renegade (You go tell my buddies)
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To: Renegade

I already go to the gym. And the gym and beer:30 are not mutually exclusive, many of us go to the gym so we can drink and not turn into Michael Moore. And I’m betting there are more pederasts in the Circe audience than avoiding Circe.


89 posted on 07/16/2009 9:55:12 AM PDT by discostu (Jeff's imagination has gone beyond the fringe of audience comprehension)
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To: Renegade

I used your spelling in the post I replied to.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2293909/posts?page=39#39

Maybe you should spend less time being insulting and more time trying to be worthy of that ego.


90 posted on 07/16/2009 9:57:59 AM PDT by discostu (Jeff's imagination has gone beyond the fringe of audience comprehension)
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To: discostu

Cut me a break. My heart bleeds for you . The brown clown has no idea what he is getting himself into . I see disco in your tag. That sucks !


91 posted on 07/16/2009 10:46:11 AM PDT by Renegade (You go tell my buddies)
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To: lado

Did you get your moniker from the guitar company of the same name?


92 posted on 07/16/2009 10:46:38 AM PDT by wastedyears (The Tree is thirsty and the hogs are hungry.)
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To: discostu

Well .YOU missed the correction ..


93 posted on 07/16/2009 10:47:24 AM PDT by Renegade (You go tell my buddies)
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To: Renegade

I didn’t complain about your spelling, that’s a break. Just think it’s funny that you then complain about mine when I’m just using yours. Not sure who the brown clown is or what that has to do with... well anything. Disco’s not in my tag, disco is in my name, the tag is a quote from Frank Zappa.


94 posted on 07/16/2009 10:48:36 AM PDT by discostu (Jeff's imagination has gone beyond the fringe of audience comprehension)
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To: dmz

Deep Purple isn’t old fogey music. They can still rock the house.

And they’ve been on a touring binge since I saw them in 2007. They have dates to December 8th of this year.


95 posted on 07/16/2009 10:49:36 AM PDT by wastedyears (The Tree is thirsty and the hogs are hungry.)
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To: Renegade

Well YOU misspelled it in the first place. Don’t insult other people for YOUR mistake.


96 posted on 07/16/2009 10:49:56 AM PDT by discostu (Jeff's imagination has gone beyond the fringe of audience comprehension)
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To: SJSAMPLE
I don't understand the reasoning in comparing the Beatles to Cole Porter. I love them both...also Bob Seeger, Paul Simon, Rob Thomas, Gwen Stephani, Bizet and Brian Wilson.

If I was going to write an article like this, my title would be:

The Sad Decline of Music: Cole Porter vs. Marilyn Manson

97 posted on 07/16/2009 10:57:36 AM PDT by Deb (Beat him, strip him and bring him to my tent!)
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To: Travis T. OJustice

Chulrun for Clapner?


98 posted on 07/16/2009 11:02:32 AM PDT by gathersnomoss (General George Patton had it right.)
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To: steve-b

Yah. It’s an eternal truth. “World” tends to be defined as “how things were when I was a pollywog.”

By the way, what is it with those Assyrian stone tablets? Are they never satisfied?


99 posted on 07/16/2009 11:09:00 AM PDT by Poe White Trash
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To: discostu

Well, Weasels Ripped My Flesh !


100 posted on 07/16/2009 11:09:52 AM PDT by Renegade (You go tell my buddies)
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