Posted on 03/07/2008 11:56:33 AM PST by GQuagmire
Prince, while an ass, is amazingly talented. And a lot of his music really is more rock than soul.
The Beatles brought rock back to America. Even if they never made a song that deserves to be called rock and roll, even if they never made a song that was even listenable, they belong in the Hall for reminding us that we invented rock and roll and deserve to listen to stuff sung by people not standing there snapping their fingers in front of an orchestra.
The Beatles are a special case.
What would the Travelling Wilbury’s have sounded like if Prince had been in the group? I wish he’d make a proper Rock n Roll record.
And let me remind you of this quote...
“John Lennon said: “It was Elvis who really got me buying records. I thought that early stuff of his was great. The Bill Haley era passed me by, in a way. When his records came on the wireless, my mother used to hear them, but they didn’t do anything for me. It was Elvis who got me hooked on beat music. When I heard ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, I thought ‘this is it’ and I started to grow sideboards and all that gear....”[21] He also commented: “Nothing really affected me until I heard Elvis. If there hadn’t been an Elvis, there wouldn’t have been a Beatles”
While a Beatle was listening to Elvis, Elvis was recording a Gibb song.
I agree.
They (Jeff Lynne) has a very distinct sound.
I have just rediscovered the Wilbury’s.
The Beatles rode on the wave of Motown to a group of people who could not accept what rock and roll really was. Black music. Rock and Roll never left the states. It was always here. They “brought” nothing.
They were popular and the kids swooned. The Beatles of 1964 were the Hannah Montana of today.
They are just so popular with the Baby Boomers they are wonderful
Sacharine love songs? That’s most of 50s and early 60s rock. You can say the same thing about The Beach Boys.
Yes, Elvis was in the wave of early rock that got exported to England and then forgotten. The early history of rock is weird, we invented it, we exported it, we walked away from it, and the Brits brought it back.
Of course Elvis did plenty of not rock. The thing people always forget in the Rock Hall discussions is that good band is not equal to rock and roll hall of fame. I’ve got a number of artists in my collection that are truly brilliant, that make music better than most of the legitimate members of the hall, that clearly do not belong in the hall because they are not rock and roll bands. Heck one is mentioned in this article, Miles Davis, truly brilliant musician, excellent composer, one of the brightest lights in the history of music.. JAZZ music. And even though he stole rock ideas to revive jazz, and the entire progressive 70s fusion rock era (which I love) probably wouldn’t have existed without him, he was not a rock and roll guy and does not belong in the rock and roll hall of fame.
No rock and roll left the states, at least the radio in the states. And since you’re talking the early 60s if it wasn’t on the radio it basically didn’t exist, only the hard core rock junkies hanging in the back of the record store remembered this think called rock. And then came the British Invasion.
But the Beatles are so much more saccharine. “I wanna hold your hand”, “she loves you”, “love me do”, these songs make me want to puncture my eardrums to never risk hearing them again. Horrid diabetes inducing dreck.
Apparently you didn’t live in Cleveland, hon.
In our area, back to Detroit and over to the coast, Rock and Roll lived. It was called “Colored Music”. And everyone listened to it. I remember my mother flipping out that my oldest sister did. (sis was born in 1953)
You know the history from the history they want you to know.
There were pockets but the reality is the reality. I know the history from what REALLY HAPPENED. There’s a reason so many of those guys went to England and had such a major influence on British music, the audience in America had dried up. You can make claims about your neighborhood but they are simply not true for the nation as a whole, remember the plural of anecdote is not fact. The fact is rock and roll left America for England.
Like I said, you’ve read a lot. Reality is that Motown was going strong. And largely ignored by the MSM of the time.
And I’m not making claims about my “neighborhood” unless you consider Chicago to NYC my neighborhood. I had family all over who got the same 25 cent 45s. Colored Music is Rock and Roll. The media packaged the “British Invation” so well, it has become fact. Pity.
Until my namesakes are in, the R&RHoF can piss off!
I’ll offer a gentle dissent that the very ideas of Rock ‘n’ Roll and “Hall Of Fame” are antithetical. When it’s you who has become the Establishment, what is there left to rebel against?
Good article. I stopped paying attention when they let in Billy Joel. Blech!
How old Paul was when he wrote it isn’t an excuse, “Love Me Do” is still a horrid song that makes me want to puke, maybe if he was 14 when he put it on an album I could write if off but he wasn’t.
“She loves you” might be complex but it’s cap, and has never rocked any house ever under any circumstances.
What am I comparing them to? The rest of the music in the world, music that isn’t painful to hear, stuff that isn’t the vile pap of prefab pop music.
Want some early 60s music that isn’t as saccharine as the Beatles look no further than James Brown, BB King, Muddy Waters or any of the greats that were having a hard time getting air play at the time. In any particular era in time there is actually a quantity of good music being made, it’s frequently not getting the air play because the radio business has been ruled by crap since long before the Beatles were even born, but it’s out there, and it’s not saccharine.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.