I like Strawberry fields forever
I don't care who wrote it
I don't care about the beatles or any member of the band
me, me, me, me, me
And appraising the Beatles today by looking at the music in isolation somewhat misses the point. To understand the impact they had on music, and on culture and even society as whole, you need to understand the context. What they did in the 1960s really sets them apart from pretty much every band before or since, regardless of whether the tunes sound good to today's ears. I'm reminded of Philip Larkin's proposition than sex didn't exist before 1963...
Good point, we'll made, etc
He is past it as a performer, but you can't disregard everything he did as a musician and song writer. Just look through the Beatles back catalogue and see how many of their songs have been absorbed into our culture, to the extent that a lot of people don't even realise that they're Beatles songs.
His Wings stuff wasn't bad either - Band on the Run, Live and Let Die, etc.
Grum - You must go to some crap gigs.
Going to gigs i like, its the recorded ones that people listen to on the radio that i was questioning, hence the 'listen' point.
Saw Macca at a charity gig organised 10 years back, he was outstanding and the finale / group rendition of all the performers of Hey Jude was one of my best ever music experiences live.
That being said he was terrible at the Olympics - time to step away from the piano Paul.
I read that Macca did what younger artists would probably call a flashmob today. Predictably getting some stick online for it. But I saw this on Twitter and thought it was a good point:
"Corny but good to see. Pop needs to do this more often. It's folk music after all."
Mind i say this as someone who dosnt see the point in 'listening' to live music, its very rare that any live performance or recording has a sound engineer who is not deaf and cant manage to balance the sound levels, leaving the singer or an instrument totally out of the performance.
I guess your bike never comes off the turbo in it's climate controlled room. You wouldn't want to get outside and find it's all wet and muddy or dry and dusty and the temperature a bit too high or low and the humidity less than optimum. 🙂
