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
Inspired by the Beatles' Rubber Soul album, Wilson set out to construct the greatest pop record ever made.
Bruce Johnston, the sixth Beach Boy, was in London and played it for John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The two Beatles were both inspired to expand their songwriting and recording skills, culminating with Sgt. Pepper's.
Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley predated the Beatles, Chad.
"But were the Stones purely a rock band or a wannabe Chicago blues band as well? Their earliest albums are largely covers and even when they revitalized their career with Beggar's Banquet, they turned in a lot of blues recordings."
I always considered the Stones as a Blues band...if you listen to their music and not the crap on the radio...you can see it's 90% Blues....that was up until the mid 80's...then they turned pop....
And Brian was quite pleased with Pet Sounds, but supposedly after listening to Pepper's felt as though he had been surpassed. It went down hill from there.
Just my recollection, I do enjoy both of their works.
If you really want to get into the artistry of the Beatles, one of the best ways to do it is to hop onto Kazaa or Limewire and, ahh, download for personal use only any of the Beatles' bootlegs or out-takes. Listening to them "compose" in the studio gives you shivers.
See, I'd go with the Dirtbombs, the Brian Jonestown Massacre (some not all, as they are very prolific), Billy Childish (most any of his bands), The Lazy Cowgirls, The Ponys, The Sadies, The High Dials,...
Vines/Hives/Strokes/White Stripes/"The Return of Rock YEAH!!!" is as reflective of music as a whole as Smashing Pumpkins/Pearl Jam/Nirvana/Soundgarden was of grunge (which overlooked Mudhoney, Monkeywrench, & Poison 13 which ALL came before and Gibson Brothers, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Blacktop, Reverend Horton Heat, and all of the other distorted roots/blues rock that gives up knock offs like the Black Keys today as well as all of the 1990s garage punk bands on Estrus, Sympathy For The Record Industry, In The Red, Crypt, and other labels). These bands shared lineups and fans. Again "real" rock and roll was overlooked (and the definition of "grunge" was capped at roughly 5 bands).
Yep. Keith even favors the open G tuning---a favorite of most old bluesmen.
Hey , in that abbreviated list, you have to at least get Steely Dan in there.
LOL....you'll need an asbestos suit momentarily....my boys, The Funk Brothers, played on more # 1 hits than the Beatles, Beach Boys, Rolling Stones and Elvis combined....my favorite touring band right now is Tower Of Power....
Their worst effort by a longshot. Thankfully they followed this embarrassment with perhaps their best effort and undoubtedly the first of their releases that was quintessentially Stones -- Beggars Banquet. .....the first of a series of four of the best albums in the history of the genre, imo.
The Kinks were able to better transition musically through the decades than other bands of their era (although the Stones hit some relevant high points in the 1970s and 1980s). That goes for individual singers as well as bands.
Maybe the artists should do it for reasons other than selling records? Plus, they can always release through their own websites.
I'm in 3 bands and have a record collection that spans from classical to motown, rock to death metal.
bring on the flames!
Pretty much.
Nobody does love songs like the old blues men, often times rather dirty, frequently painful, but always deep and interesting. The kind of love adults have, not something a 12 year-old girl would be able to connect to.
True. But thanks to the success of the Beatles when they reached America, well, there it goes...
The same song in a different key is still the same song. These songs are all rewrites of whichever one of them was first. Mimeographed pap.
Big Stax bump. .....especially to guitarist Steve Cropper.
Oh yeah.
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