The Beatles: icon or con?

Sidney Morning Herald ^ | 12/22/04 | Greg Hassall and Charles Purcell

[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

[Voir Dire]

I don't recall the Dead covering many Beatles songs.

Garcia did an intense Dear Prudence, and "I Saw Her Standing There" on his solo album; they covered the reprise of Jude in a segue from Dear Mr. Fantasy (Traffic). Later on they covered Lucy. Can't think of too many others. They probably covered more Dylan tunes than anyone else,though.

[Mr. Mojo]

and my brother's back at home
with his Beatles and his Stones,

we never got it off
on that revolution stuff.

What a drag
too many snags.

- Ian Hunter (from "All the Young Dudes")

[x]

The Beatles are still the best rock band ever. But rock isn't what it used to be, and it doesn't mean as much as it once did. Who was the best a generation or two ago means nothing now. 50s, 60s, and 70s music are now like Ragtime, 20s Jazz, or Swing were to the last generation: old stuff -- at best, your parents' music, at worst, museum pieces, dead as doorknobs ...

... which means we'll see a revival soon. So save your old stuff.

[driveserve]

"For sheer musical and cultural impact in history there is none that compare to the Beatles..."

Sorry. In 300 years they're gonna still be talking about, performing & be in absolute awe of, Mozart. That's musical, historical & cultural impact.

My 13 year old can't name a single Beatle or Beatle song & works really hard to remember "the most famous rock & roll band of all time". But he knew who Mozart was first time I asked.

[HenryLeeII]

Thanks for the info. I just can't imagine The Chairman singing "Anytime at All." Its just too rhythmic for me to picture him doing! He once said that "Something" is the greatest Lennon-McCartney song ever, even though it was written by George! And thanks for the link to the covers list - I love useless trivia that fills my brain and crowds out the more important stuff. Thanks to you I'll probably forget to finish Christmas shopping for my wife! ;>)

[NRA1995]

So what does Dion have to do with your original statement about jazz and its audience?

[NRA1995]

Wasn't me made the statement, was someone else....I've never been much of a rock fan so I have no real clue about what the Dead did

[Inyokern]

"Sexy Sadie"

"Across the Universe"

"Here There and Everywhere"

[weegee]

"Thanks to the Beatles, music in America became all about how to market sugar-coated garbage to teeny-boppers"

Ah, but they were doing that in the 50's/early 60's BEFORE the Beatles with Pat Boone, Bobby Rydell, Bobby Darin, Gene Pitney, Paul Anka, Dion, etc, etc

204 posted on 12/22/2004 1:21:30 PM PST by NRA1995 ("Yew jes' go and lay yore hand on a Pittsburgh Steelers fan & Ah think yer gonna fin'lly understand")

You sluffed off Dion as a teeny bopper. Joy popper maybe.

[HenryLeeII]

Wow! That was quick! They also have a great album called Summerteeth which came out in '99. If Being There is the White Album for its sprawling eclectic nature, then Summerteeth is like Revolver, with that freshly and crisply-minted sound and its snappy, fairly short, semi-psychedelic sounding songs. There are about four songs near the beginning that I skip over, but the rest of it is great. Also, the Mermaid Avenue albums (Vol. 1 & 2) are interesting: Woody Guthrie's daughter found notebooks of his lyrics, but with no music. Wilco and Billy Bragg teamed up to set them to music, and the first one was really good; I haven't heard the second one.

[weegee]

Prepare to be shocked. I have no use for Bob Segar or Bruce Springsteen, two icons of the 1970s who I would both put far behind the Beatles for consistency of albums.

Lester Bangs nailed Segar's music in an article that was reprinted in his posthumous book.

[NRA1995]

Well...."Runaround Sue" and "Teenager In Love" struck me as sugar-coated stuff.....though I believe he DID have a rather silly version of "Purple Haze" in 69

[weegee]

For awhile someone was compiling whole CDs of covers of Beatles songs. Rhino did a dedicated Golden Throats disk; the most unusual cut being the Mission Impossible Theme grafted together with Norwegian Wood (which I believe was a 60s cut, not a recent song cobbled together).

[Mr. Mojo]

Your dislike of Springsteen and Seger neither shocks me nor concerns the matter we're discussing. (I didn't mention Springsteen anyway). My point, which you didn't come close to refuting, is that there was a helluva lot of great rock and roll in the 1970s.

[netmilsmom]

>>"To Love Somebody", whether done in R&B style or pop, is a beautifully rhythmic song.<<

Even as far back as "Run to Me", the Brothers Gibb showed some talent!

[GVnana]

They were very talented. But never learned to good-naturedly handle the inevitable comparisons with the Beatles. Lot of resentments there.

[netmilsmom]

>> But never learned to good-naturedly handle the inevitable comparisons with the Beatles. Lot of resentments there.<<

You are so right!
I just went on Amazon and bought the "Main Course" album.
I actually named a cat Shenendora after the "Edge of the Universe" cut on there. That kitty lived 20 years.

I told my hubby this and he thought I was a loon.

(this is too much information, isn't it?)

[GVnana]

It's sad, really. They let it eat them up. It didn't have to.

[weegee]

I've heard that the first Bee Gees album is worth seeking out. I have still not done this (not sure which is the first, same as I heard about the Grateful Dead).

I have heard a local band cover a song from that first Bee Gees album and have been quite impressed. Then again I actually prefer their version of Dandelion to the Rolling Stones' version.

[weegee]

I listed some good rock and roll bands from the 1970s (Ramones, Saints, Dictators, even the Gizmos) unfortunately they did not chart, get played on tv shows, press in magazines, or in other ways seep down to me in the 1970s the way that the Beatles DID.

I still put the Beatles above those bands for songwriting skill even if some of it is not "rock".

I know my Sonics, Sparkles, Monks (the ANTIbeatles), Gene Vincent, Link Wray, Pretty Things, and other such bands.

I listened to Foreigner, Steve Miller Band, AC/DC, and such stuff in my mid-school years but I would be hard pressed to consider it noteworthy just because it was a part of my daily consumption. I still remember hearing the Police (Roxanne) and the Cheap Trick's "Dream Police" on the radio as new songs (and seeing some confusion between the names). MTV helped to codify "classic rock" as those stations did "smash or trash" with the "new wave" bands (actually 4 years AFTER new wave) to see whether they should include the new sound in the rotation. No. Now such stations are falling off the airwaves.

I listen to music of all eras (stretching back to the 1920s at times, although I have some things even older).

Best t-shirt I saw in 1979 said "The 50s were Grease, The 60s were Grass, the 70s were Gross". Really is a decade of the "best of times and worst of times". Good in spite of itself. SNL was good but National Lampoon Radio Hour was even better.