Why the Beatles? (1 Viewer)

Ha ha. Sorry man, if anyone wants to argue that McCartney rocks or ever rocked, I'll argue that he most certainly did not until I'm dead and they bury me in the internet.

He may well be a musical genius, a natural talent, and he wrote and sang a lot of songs that I love. But he also wrote some of the cheesiest songs in the history of cheese. And he just never, ever had enough...I dunno...angst to rock. Bad shit happened to him, I'm sure he had anger in there somewhere. But he buried it under that smile, and never let anything dark or frightening or weird (i.e. interesting) out.

But what do I know.
 
Evidence of Cheese and Cheesey

Exhibit #1

[This video is unavailable.]

Exhibit #2

[This video is unavailable.] This is probably sung by John but It was Paul's idea.

Exhibit #3 and I'm going to be sick.

[This video is unavailable.]
 
In McCartney's defense (now look what you've done), 90% of The Long and Winding Road's cheese factor can be blamed on Phil Spector. McCartney was appalled at what Spector did to the songs that became Let It Be. All of the Beatles were.

When I'm 64 was sung by Paul.
 
Oh, that voice sounded like the description you made of John's voice only not rocking. Hey what do I know. So, Phil Spector does belong in jail.
 
I think a good example is A Day in the Life. John has some fairly dark lyrics and then Paul's obligatory cornball part is added in the middle. Put it all together, and you have one of the greatest songs ever written.

[This video is unavailable.]
 
Yeah, there are some good examples of their collaboration balancing each other out like that. Like McCartney's Getting Better with Lennon's "It can't get no worse" background vocal, etc.

I like the example of A Hard Day's Night. It's all Lennon, but once they had settled on that as the title of the film, he went home and wrote the song. Overnight. That's how intense the competition between he and McCartney was for who would get the A side of the singles, and the title songs for the movies.

He did the same thing for Help!. As soon as they found out the title of the movie was going to be Help! and not 8 Arms To Hold You, he went immediately to work writing Help!.

So the writing of both of those songs was motivated by competition, and without that competition neither song might exist. At least in the form it does. That could be said for a lot of the songs by both of them. Even when they didn't directly collaborate, they influenced each other.
 
So, let me get this straight...Ringo is a virtuoso, and Paul is an average musician...got it.

That shouldn't affect their superstar greatness one iota. You only need to be appealing to the masses. There have been great people who were just too over our heads.
 
Yeah, that's what I said. Average musician. It must be written somewhere in this thread...

My apologies...your average musician statement was regarding John. I got my panties in a bunch over nothing. I agree, John was an average musician, but still better than Ringo.
 
I always thought was Paul's own admission that he was pure cheese. I must admit, I love Sir Paul Mccartney's cheese, but have always been a bigger fan of Lennon's solo work. But as Purple mentioned above, adding Paul's cornball and John's darker side always seemed to make the perfect mix to me.

I am looking forward to a night of two buck chuck wine(from Trader Joe's) and Paul's cheese when he plays the Hollywood Bowl on the 30th and 31st of March, if I can score a couple of $50.00 tickets.
 
I wonder why the record companies ignore YouTube and prefer to prosecute the kid down the street who shared a few dozen MP3s? All of the songs they are dragging these people into court over are on YouTube.

When the RIAA comes for me (first they came for the communists, and I did not speak out...) that's going to be my defense.
 
I remember reading somewhere (probably Wikipedia or some similar site) that Lennon hated that Paul did the vocals for Oh, Darling, and thought that he could have done a better job of it...

I'd love to have heard his version...
 
Well, then Lennon should have written it.

And I wouldn't think that George could really hold a candle to McCartney strictly as a musician. Certainly Harrison was a tasteful guitar player and a decent songwriter. To paraphrase Lennon, Harrison wasn't even the best guitarist in the Beatles.
 
when I want to see how different Lennon and McCartney were/are I only have to look at Lennon's song "Mother" from Plastic Ono Band. on the fade out, Lennon is screaming the word 'mother'. absolute vocal chord blow-out screaming. McCartney would never, ever do that. sometimes you have to forget that people are paying attention to you and lay shit out. McCartney always seems aware that someone is watching.

don't get me wrong, I'm not choosing sides and think that each had their own brilliance and when they were at their peak they brought the best out of each other.

and even though I prefer Lennon, screaming for screaming's sake can get indulgent if left unchecked.
 
John was the smart one.
Paul was the cute one.
George was the quiet one.
Ringo was the funny one.

That settles it... there is no more than that.

I think you can safely lock this thread now.

Or not.
 
John Lennon's Jukebox

In 1989, John Lennon's jukebox surfaced in an auction of Beatles memorabilia at Christie's, and was sold for £2,500 ($4,907) to Bristol-based music promoter John Midwinter. Lennon had apparently bought the jukebox - specifically a Swiss KB Discomatic - in 1965, and filled it with forty singles to take with him on tour. Midwinter spent several years restoring the box and researching the discs catalogued in Lennon's spidery handwriting. When Midwinter developed cancer, and his health began to deteriorate, his desire to see the player featured in some kind of documentary became all the more important

i've seen bits of it - here's the whole thing -

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7532896021332831792#
 
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A few examples of McCartney avoiding both The Tin Pan Alley effect and the "look-at-me-I-can-rock-out-like-John-too" syndrome :

I'm Looking Through You
Eleanor Rigby
Fixing A Hole
Blackbird
Martha My Dear

EDIT: On second thought, the B section of "Fixing A Hole" has sort of a Tin Pan quality to it.
 
I wonder why the record companies ignore YouTube and prefer to prosecute the kid down the street who shared a few dozen MP3s? All of the songs they are dragging these people into court over are on YouTube.

When the RIAA comes for me (first they came for the communists, and I did not speak out...) that's going to be my defense.

I thought I read somewhere that when users upload copyrighted material(like someone making their own video for, lets say a Beatles song) youtube restricts, or shuts down the users account?

But their certainly are a million songs on youtube being used without the artists consent, so who knows.
 
i've been playing lots of different music for my 2 1/2 year old son since
he was born and he's hooked on the fabs.

we were watching a clip of them doing twist and shout and he said about
john lennon "he sings very angry" - "how come he sings so angry?"

great interview clip of lennon after his second book came out.

[This video is unavailable.]
 
I have no idea this has been posted before but I'm watching the documentary "The Beatles in the Studio" at this very moment and- it is amusing.
Not so bad so far.

45 minutes later: after all it was nothing much.
 
Mixed feelings about this:


Something about everyone (myself included) having a go with the Beatles songbook - many times I've either asked or been asked to do something live, and the end response was always "no."

But these guys deliver the goods. It ain't the Beatles, but they capture some of their spirit and I have to say, the whole thing gets to me.

8/10 - only because, well, only because.
 
Time to resurrect this thread just like Jesus. Has it been three days already?

A few photos you all probably have not seen:

Beatle Bone.jpg John Parrot and Paul.jpg
Lennonandhis45s.jpg

I'm sure that's a Marlboro Paul is bogarting.
 
That photo of Lennon and his 45's is awesome. I wish I had that in a huge print framed on my wall. Nice, thanks Purple.
 
A few more:

The sheepdog Paul is holding is Martha, as in Martha My Dear.

005.jpg



Martha.jpg



Very Early 2.jpg



A George looks about 12 in that early shot from '61 or so. It looks like Paul is still playing guitar, althought that must be a bass, as I doubt they'd play with three guitars and no bass. Pre-'61 Hofner apparently.
 

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