Posted on 12/22/2004 11:56:06 AM PST by qam1
Greg Hassall and Charles Purcell do battle over the fab four.
FOR
OK, Ob-la-di Ob-la-da is the most annoying song ever written. And you won't find Revolution No 9 on too many iPods. But how many bands' dud tracks can you count on one hand? The Beatles deserve their place in the pop pantheon. They revolutionised the way pop music was written, recorded and talked about. They were funny, charismatic, hungry to learn and unafraid of controversy. They matured spectacularly over seven tumultuous years, then quit on a high note with the peerless Abbey Road.
They were a genuine band, in that the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. The three writers spurred each other on and checked each other's excesses (McCartney's sentimentality, Lennon's bile and Harrison's cod mysticism). In one throwaway B-side, Rain, they created the template for psychedelic Britpop, a genre lesser bands spend an entire career mining. Their refusal to write the same song twice resulted in a catalogue of breathtaking diversity, while producer George Martin gave the recordings a unique, uncluttered sound that refuses to date. And, as the age of the drum solo dawned, Ringo kept it real, underpinning the Beatles' sound with undemonstrative precision.
Greg Hassall
AGAINST
Pretty much everyone in the '60s must have been on drugs - that's the only reason I can imagine why the Beatles were so popular. They had about three decent songs: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Eleanor Rigby - and that other one, the one that doesn't suck. It's a riddle greater than the pyramids as to why a group of English fops with ridiculous hairstyles could make entire crowds of grown adults faint in awe. John Lennon? A prancing popinjay. Paul McCartney? A ponce. George Harrison? Vanity in the shape of a man. Ringo Starr?
A cool dude - the only one.
OK, so the Beatles recorded on top of a building. Big deal. OK, so they hung out with the Maharishi. Is that supposed to give their dire tunes spiritual worth?
"But they were a major influence in the history of rock'n'roll," some might bleat. Sure they were - but does that mean the baby boomers have to force their boring Beatlemania down our craws year after year, decade after decade?
I'm glad Yoko Ono helped split them up. She's the true heroine of this story. Too bad she's also a lousy artist.
And Wings. Don't get me started on McCartney's sad side project. That's another story.
- Charles Purcell
A list of great albums from the 70's would run in the hundreds. .....by The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Little Feat, Jethro Tull, Bob Marley, Tom Petty, Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, Frank Zappa, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Leon Russell. .....too many to name.
You're not suggesting these particular songs are clones of each other, are you?
Ya know, when you showed up at school, and when the Nuclear Excavation Drill occurred, you dug around under your desk looking for a nuclear material. Duh.
Ok...Thanks for the correction but as far as the world knows, it was after Abbey Road.
But no matter...Abbey Road was one of the absolute greats, imho, especially side 2. Masterfully crafted.
I used to sing Golden Slumbers to my baby son...
:0)~
Otis Redding... BUMP!!! Let me add Smokey Robinson in there.
now THAT was music!
Turnabout is fair play...on Cream's "Badge", it was George Harrison playing the 12 string....
Same shmalzty lyrics, same basic 4/4, same intended audience of pubescent girls with their first crush. These songs are the "pinacle" (if it ever had such a thing) of the 100% generic cheesy love song. Every stupid whiny uninteresting love song since, all the way up through the latest from whoever won American Idol this year, traces it roots right back to these songs. Pure song factory mimeography.
I havent figured out how to edit my posts-
that should read nuclear "evacuation" drills.
LOL!!
Over-rated formula pop early on, and drug-inspired concept albums in the later years... Yawn.
They may have been great with bringing us stuff like feedback, distortion, and other studio advances, which I appreciate, but they also helped to give legitimacy to drugs and the hippie movement.
Screw 'em.
Hear, hear. I agree 1000%.
In my opinion, Rubber Soul is the single most important album of the Beatles era (I was 15 at the time it was realeased). It was the very first album ever with a theme and not just a collection of songs.
Even today, I still enjoy listening to it on CD and my two teenagers love it too and are amazed at the musical diversity of the various tracks.
Although I do like the Jayhawks and the Old 97s.
"Education. So hot, it's radioactive!"
Indeed! As I said originally, too much great R & B in that time frame to listen to. Even more in the 70's!
Music wasn't stagnating. The INDUSTRY deliberately castrated rock and roll.
There were good bands out there and they had regional fame and are still legendary among cult circles. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will ignore them however as they are the unsung heroes.
The INDUSTRY gave us corporate rock in the 1970s, boy bands in the 1980s and again in the 1990s, and rap-rock hybrids today.
REAL rock has persisted in SPITE of the corporate efforts to kill it.
Here in Houston, there is one station remaining playing ANY sort of new rock releases and they have the balls to call themselves "alternative". Alternative to what? They only play rock songs that are on the charts and are the only game in town. That makes them the establishment and much of what they play is 10 years old which makes them an oldie/classic station of sorts.
In the 1990s, Nirvana didn't invent grunge but they were the band that could be used to take it to the masses just as the Beatles and Elvis before them sold an already existent form of rock and roll.
So much bad music and so many overhyped acts.
Three of those 4 albums were released in 1965. Man, talk about a great couple years for music.
"...Simple beautiful music, lyrically complex and many new recording techniques..."
Nowegian Wood is a nice folk song. The rest of the drivel you cite is either pretenious twaddle or Tin Pan Alley rip-offs. If any complexity, novelty or art can be uncovered there it was due to the genius of Sir. George.
Martin's contribution is evident by ommission. The complete ommission of talent, insight or beauty in the Beatles's collective solo work demonstrates beyond a shadow of doubt that is was he and only he who is worthy of respect (well, Ringo is pretty cool, admittedly).
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