Saturday, June 4, 2011

In Defense of The Beatles

I read this attack on The Beatles and I felt it needed a response even if the blogger isn't posting anymore and won't read the comment. Somehow, I think it matters. He doesn't like The Beatles. Considers Rubber Soul a piece of trash. How could I let this stand?

Here's a quote I took from him to begin my comment:
"For sure, these guys have a grand collection of incredible tunes; if only they had opted to consolidate such greatness over two or three albums instead of the numberless albums, international editions, compilations, singles, etc." -Mad Hatter

Hatter, please remove "Band Manager" from any list of future aspirations you have.

Brian Epstein managed The Fuck out these four guys who easily could've ended up playing The Cavern Club for five years and then returned to Liverpool to work in the coal mine.

The lifespan of a good/great band is ten years. Unless you are REM (talk about numberless albums) and fool everyone for 20 years then you have one decade, probably less, to make sure you don't end up opening up for a Poison tribute band in your twilight years or performing karaoke style lip-syncs like Harry Nilsson in his final days. Newsflash: Your opinion is not factored into most musician's game plan.

Surfers don't have the luxury to wait for "that one perfect wave". Surfers surf. Writers write. Musicians make music. They don't sit on the golden egg waiting for it to hatch #1 hits. It's pop art, not commissioned operas. Their career happens in real time and there were so many bands throwing down incredible albums in 1965 and 1966 that if they skip a year to ponder their craft then The Beach Boys or The Hollies or Dylan OR ANYONE basically takes their place and Let it Be and Abbey Road never get recorded. Every song on Rubber Soul is good enough to record. Are they all "Stairway to Heaven" good? No. But they're good enough to record and that's what musicians do.

That's what keeps music vital: it waits for no man. You play and record RIGHT NOW and if you are talented under the gun then you produce great music. If you can't take the heat then it all crumbles. Either way, you can't call a time out in the music business. The blitz is always on and if you need to wait for inspiration then you can collect your welfare check with everyone else. I'll pay you $5000 to write me a publishable essay on the Israel/Palestine conflict that doesn't repeat anything already written about that topic. Can you do in it the next 24 hours? A good writer can. If you need two weeks then welcome to blogsville.

The Beatles recorded for 7 years and they bowed out with dignity. It's not their fault the zeitgeist beatified them in a way The Seekers never enjoyed. Don't confuse your music reviews with your pop culture criticisms.

Eat this:


"They cried the tears, they shed the fears,
Up and down the land,
They stole guitars or used guitars
- So the tape would understand,"

It's a dirty business and I like it that way.
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Man in the Van by Oggy Bleacher is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.