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
I'm a realist. When somebody does a cover of a song they frequently change the key, it's one of the things you do to make a song "your own", doesn't mean it's a different song just a different rendition of the same song. Functionally those songs are all covers of each other, yeah the re-arranged the lyrics a little, yeah they changed the key, but the points of similarity are much higher than the points of disimilarity. They're generic cheesy sweet innocent love songs, the keystone to everything that is sick and wrong in modern pop.
The Beatles were really before my time but I do like "Maxwell's Silver Hammer".
Of course, I'd like most songs that promote random violence.
Except that Jerry Lee Lewis got dumped when it was discovered that his second wife was his 13 year old cousin and Chuck Berry went to jail for violating the Mann Act bringing a minor across state lines for immoral purposes.
These are sexually active performers. Lock up your daughters kind of thing. The Beatles did get laid a lot in their Hamburg days and in their tour of North America.
I like George Harrison's, My Sweet Lord, and I also like a few songs by Paul McCartney... Ebony and Ivory comes to mind.
I hear you, and you've got a point, too. But consider that much of the Beatles' early pap was a product of Brian Epstein's successful attempt to clean the band up and market it to a broader audience. Before Epstein came along, there were no Edwardian suits . . . no Love Me Dos. The Beatles were a leather-wearing, falling off the stage drunk rock-and-roll band. Lennon even once wore a toilet seat around his neck on stage.
Once the Beatles made a conscious effort to be artists rather than entertainers, they shucked most of the schlock.
Thank God for CDs. Nothing can replace these giants live when they could be at their most creative, but the reflection on the CD is better than nothing.
It is not about the exact notes or lyrics, it is about the formula.
The Beatles certainly perfected a love song/pop formula.
One that some of us resent.
The guy writing the anti-Beatle piece sounds like a high-schooler trying to be cool. Not one valid point. The fact that their albums remain consistently atop listeners' and critics' polls, coupled with the fact that although they only recorded from 1962-1969, they've outsold every artist in history, makes for one convincing argument for their greatness. Not to mention that they are cited probably more than any other artist as an influence and/or inspiration. Not many bands boast four songwriters, four lead singers, and the sheer variety and number of cover artists of their material. Thanks for the ping.
I think what gets my goat the most is, that in Junior High (oh, those many years ago) our Music Teacher decided that a whole semester geared towards the Beatles (including two weeks, with tests) on the whole "Paul is Dead" crap, was a good thing.
Some people just take stuff waaaaaaaaaaaay too seriously, and make entire mountain ranges out of one little hill. Sigh.
My point was all those songs aren't the same chord progressions and constructions: they're all very different from each other. What you're suggesting is that they're all "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," but since Axyl Rose's voice is different than Dylan's, he sings it in A instead of E, or whatever. Such is very much not the case with the songs you suggested.
James Taylor, Helen Reddy, Bay City Rollers, Kiss, Barry Mannilow, Styx, Randy Newman, Elton John, Village People, Bee Gees, Air Supply, Boston...
So little rock. Unless you want to slap on a Ramones, Dictators, Saints, or Iggy Pop album (none of which were radio hits).
Yes, it's good to hear something "throwback" on the radio nowadays, with garage-esque tone, but it's been happening since 1979. It just hasn't been on the radio.
Jack White's lyrics are alright, but I know tons of folks writing some good lyrics these days. Meg White sucks. Period. There's nothing you can say to change that. As far as gimmick duos goes, I can't think of a better or more cheesey one right now. But feel free to help me out!
Thats the point with them: they're a gimmick. If she was a better drummer it would take away from Jack's personality, or the songs? That's a statement I really think is kinda dumb. Their whole thing is a gimmick. "I'm a good singer/songwriter/guitar player, but if we want to make it, we need a gimmick... hmmm, good thing you have nice breasts... you'll play drums!"
What, my list wasn't long enough for you?
Well, why did they influence so many musicians if they were the musical messiahs many seem to think they were. Why have so many artists, from Frank Sinatra to the Grateful Dead, covered their material? Why have countless musicians named them as an influence? Rock & roll was a dying bree, corrupted by the popmeisters of the Brill Building and Tin Pan Alley by 1964, with schlock movie soundtracks by Elvis and teenybopper sludge being the norm, until the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan show in '64. That was followed by a boom of garage bands and musical invention we haven't really seen since.
Oh sure. For one thing that's the advance American Idol winners get. Of course as with all entertainment industry contracts the key is in the fine print "paying off" (getting your percentage of the album sales that would be paid to you if you hadn't gotten an advance) that advance can be very difficult, and can add albums to your contract if not done quickly enough. There's a reason why in "Last Don" the old mobster warns against getting involved in entertainment, they're too crafty and sneaky for mobsters.
28 Million Albums Sold
Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 - Eagles (Elektra)
The Beatles were a good band yet horribly over rated.
For feedback, distortion, and other improvements to rock and roll, you've got to turn to Howlin' Wolf, Link Wray, Travis Wammack, Dick Dale, and Davie Allan (and the Arrows).
Link Wray got banned for an instrumental cut long before the Beatles even considered playing rock and roll. That same single (Rumble) got Pete Townsend to pick up a guitar.
All of them except for Chester Burnette (Howlin' Wolf) are still alive and still playing (and still recording new music). It took Beavis & Butthead to get Dick Dale on MTV despite his Miseralou leading the smash film Pulp Fiction.
Screw the music industry. They screw over the talented performers and push pap.
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