The Beatles

The Beatles are not one of my favorite bands, but I do like them. I realize the impact they have made on modern music. But then I like Pink Floyd, the Moody Blues, the Stones and the Kinks.

Pandora picked out a strange song recently. It sounded like this seriously modern Emo-kind of stuff with a female singer who wasn't a native English speaker. Kind of a nifty indie track.

It was Yoko Ono.

So I went back and listened to her stuff from Double Fantasy. It is good, and easily 20 years ahead of its time.

mikoyan wrote:

The Beatles are not one of my favorite bands, but I do like them. I realize the impact they have made on modern music. But then I like Pink Floyd, the Moody Blues, the Stones and the Kinks.

That's exactly what I was talking about in my comment. I probably wouldn't class the Beatles in my favorite bands either. John Lennon, both in the Beatles and out is one of my favorite artists, but I'm no dummy, and I realize the contributions each of the band members made. I just like John's stuff better. And sometimes he was a dick, but I don't hold that against artists, because I don't have to live with them.


Hey Barnes, did you ever listen to World Party? Their Egyptology album always reminds me of a Beatles disc, sometimes in an obvious fashion with quick cuts, but also just in the range of styles and sweeping scale. Underloved, lots of great tracks.

Pandora picked out a strange song recently. It sounded like this seriously modern Emo-kind of stuff with a female singer who wasn't a native English speaker. Kind of a nifty indie track.

It was Yoko Ono.

So I went back and listened to her stuff from Double Fantasy. It is good, and easily 20 years ahead of its time.

"Walking on Thin Ice" is one of my favorite songs _ever_. It has THE killer disco-punk bassline. It's so NYC...so artful, so angular, so tasteful and yet so god damned propulsive and if there's any song that makes me practically smell NYC in winter 1981, it's that song. It's an amazing track, and it's very weird how it's rarely cited in with the best of the rest of the post-punk genre. It totally stands up with Gang of Four, PiL, Wire, Liquid Liquid, the Factory stuff, et. al. Lennon was leaving the studio from the mixing of that track when he was shot.

BTW- if you've never seen the cover of Yoko's "Season of Glass", you should. It's one of the best record covers ever.

I dunno...I kind of think Yoko gets a bad rap...she's a little too "art" for most folks. That doesn't make her bad. She made some good records and some interesting conceptual art. Not for everybody, I guess.

World Party- I never cared much for them...jeez, I probably haven't heard anyone mention them in 15 years!

Not Sure wrote:

mikoyan wrote:

The Beatles are not one of my favorite bands, but I do like them. I realize the impact they have made on modern music. But then I like Pink Floyd, the Moody Blues, the Stones and the Kinks.

That's exactly what I was talking about in my comment. I probably wouldn't class the Beatles in my favorite bands either. John Lennon, both in the Beatles and out is one of my favorite artists, but I'm no dummy, and I realize the contributions each of the band members made. I just like John's stuff better. And sometimes he was a dick, but I don't hold that against artists, because I don't have to live with them.

If I held being a dick against artists, I wouldn't listen to anyone I normally listen to (Sting and Roger Waters top that list). I don't have a problem with the Beatles it's just that there were other bands that came out in that era that sounded just as good but weren't quite as popular. However, the Beatles do seem to have a timeless quality to them.

mikoyan wrote:

Not Sure wrote:

mikoyan wrote:

The Beatles are not one of my favorite bands, but I do like them. I realize the impact they have made on modern music. But then I like Pink Floyd, the Moody Blues, the Stones and the Kinks.

That's exactly what I was talking about in my comment. I probably wouldn't class the Beatles in my favorite bands either. John Lennon, both in the Beatles and out is one of my favorite artists, but I'm no dummy, and I realize the contributions each of the band members made. I just like John's stuff better. And sometimes he was a dick, but I don't hold that against artists, because I don't have to live with them.

If I held being a dick against artists, I wouldn't listen to anyone I normally listen to (Sting and Roger Waters top that list). I don't have a problem with the Beatles it's just that there were other bands that came out in that era that sounded just as good but weren't quite as popular. However, the Beatles do seem to have a timeless quality to them.

You're right, those are a pair of world-class dicks, who also happen to have made some undeniably great records. As for the Beatles, I don't think there's anybody else who was consistently that good, for that long. Weak tracks are pretty few and far between. Weak albums are non-existent. I can't say that about too many more bands, especially given the timeframe of 1964-1970.

Michael Barnes wrote:

World Party- I never cared much for them...jeez, I probably haven't heard anyone mention them in 15 years!

Yeah, that one's a bit random. The album I mentioned I tracked down based on one song heard in a weird context. Since I bought it a few years ago, it's had abnormal listening time, though. It's not Revolver, but if you get a chance, take a listen.

Michael Barnes wrote:

Going through the catalog, it's really amazing how many "perfect" songs they came up with..."While My Guitar Gently Weeps"...

You may or may not have seen this, but this is my favorite cover of this song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puSkP3uym5k

LvT

I just saw Imagine (the 1988 documentary about John lennon) for the first time. WOW, what a great movie and WHAT A SOUNDTRACK!

I think anyone and everyone would love this movie. I learned a crap load about Yoko as well (who I basically disliked from the hype before this film).

Totally recommend it for any fan and even non-fans. I can't wait for Rock Band: Beatles.


my fiancee told me I look like a young John Lennon.

I gave her compliment a low 7

It's been a while since I listened to the Beatles, and back when I was a kid I really only liked their early years (I grew up listening to a lot of 50's rock'n'roll). Later I did start to appreciate their later records, and I think my favorite is Abbey Road. It's been years since I listened to it but I remembered I just loved how it sounded...

Incidentally, I've always loved the Beach Boys, first only their "surf" stuff (again, when I was a kid), but later appreciating their later stuff like the amazing Pet Sounds. I do think Brian Wilson is right up there with Lennon and McCarthy...

And a little bit out of topic: I just learned about this really good garage/psychedelic band from Ireland who's going to play in my town at the end of the month: The Urges. What a pleasant surprise!! ( www.myspace.com/theurges )

I actually went through the Beach Boys last year. They're another band that has a certain reputation because of their popular songs that makes people forget how radical they were. They did some really very experimental and extremely sophisticated music. "Good Vibrations" is probably one of the weirdest pop songs ever written- the opening bars are just CRAZY when you consider where in rock history the song came out. That was really out there. "God Only Knows" is one of the best songs ever written, period, and "Pet Sounds" is one of the great records beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Quaintly dated teenage surf-rock, they're not.

The Beach Boys rule the universe. Greatest rock band ever. Thus spake, uh, me.

Juniper wrote:

The Beach Boys rule the universe. Greatest rock band ever. Thus spake, uh, me.

And then I listened to the Ronnettes and thought, hey, that sounds just like Pet Sounds. Only to find out that the Ronnettes were some years ahead of the Pet Sounds. That Spector guy, he knew his shit (although he definitely lost it at some points).

Jur wrote:

Juniper wrote:

The Beach Boys rule the universe. Greatest rock band ever. Thus spake, uh, me.

And then I listened to the Ronnettes and thought, hey, that sounds just like Pet Sounds. Only to find out that the Ronnettes were some years ahead of the Pet Sounds. That Spector guy, he knew his shit (although he definitely lost it at some points).

Brian Wilson is obsessed with "Be My Baby." He probably still listens to it every day.

Personally I think the Beatles are one of the most over-rated bands of their generation. They were the first boy band and that is nothing to be proud of. It wasn't until Bob Dylan told Lennon that his lyrics sucked that they started to be interesting, but as interesting as Dylan himself? Not on your life.

They were O.K., but artists like Dylan, Cohen, Zappa, Townes Van Zandt, John Prine all had much more substance to offer the lyric listening public.

Witness "I look at you and see a love there that's sleeping
I look at the floor and I see it needs sweeping"

"Sweeping"?... Really, that's the best they could come up with?

T.S. Elliott they weren't.

What I do like about them is the playground effect. They often wrote songs that sounded like kids tunes:

Bungalo Bill
Rockey Racoon
Maxwells Silver Hammer
Octopus's Garden
Obla De Obla Da

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind them, I just think they're overated and have juvinile lyrics.

Fun? You bet.
Genius? Don't push it.

The Beatles didn't have the most brilliant lyrics, but they sometimes had good enough lyrics. Factor in that they wrote so many diverse and amazing melodies, sang well, and played their instruments well, plus were out on the cutting edge of society for years, and you've got an amazing band without parallel.