Showing posts with label SGT PEPPER'S LONELY HEART'S CLUB BAND (Album). Show all posts
Showing posts with label SGT PEPPER'S LONELY HEART'S CLUB BAND (Album). Show all posts
Friday, 23 October 2015
Friday, 31 July 2015
Under The Influence: Bob Dylan (Again)
America should put up statues to the Beatles. They helped give this country's pride back to it.
Bob Dylan Q: Howard Sounes: Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan (p.203)
Lest we go too overboard here's a counterbalance
[Sgt. Pepper was] a very indulgent album...though the songs on it were real good. I didn't think all that production was necessary
Bob Dylan Q: Howard Sounes: Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan (p.270)
Here's Dylan singing Yesterday in 1970Bob Dylan Q: Howard Sounes: Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan (p.203)
Lest we go too overboard here's a counterbalance
[Sgt. Pepper was] a very indulgent album...though the songs on it were real good. I didn't think all that production was necessary
Bob Dylan Q: Howard Sounes: Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan (p.270)
To find out what Dylan thinks of Paul McCartney check this out and read more about Dylan's influence on the Beatles here and here
More artists who love the Beatles here
Links
Friday, 17 October 2014
Under The Influence: Joe Elliott (Def Leppard)
The Beatles gave us something we wouldn't have otherwise had because they spent so long in the studio with Lennon and McCartney no doubt saying, 'What does that machine do? What happens if we turn it upside down?'. When Leppard were in the studio with Mutt Lange we said, 'we wouldn't have been able to do this if The Beatles hadn't done it first'. They showed everybody the way. Our production techniques were influenced by what they were doing on Sgt. Pepper, the White Album... That influenced us more than us trying to rip off their chord structures.
Joe Elliott (Def Leppard) in Classic Rock Magazine
This is a guest post by Martin Quibell
Friday, 6 January 2012
10 Preconceptions About The Beatles (pt 3)
Let's wrap up the last 6 illusions I was labouring under (or was I?) when I started this blog.
Read the previous parts here and here.
5) None of the Beatles were very good players. Especially Ringo
WRONG - Forget 'Bigger Than Jesus', no Beatles quote has been more misunderstood and misused than Lennon's “Ringo isn't even the best drummer in the Beatles” wisecrack. And it was just that - a wisecrack. So for the record here's three reasons why Ringo was an amazing drummer
1) The sheer number of beats and styles he navigated with ever really repeating himself over 211 songs
2) The fact that in 7 years of recording that only a handful of takes broke down due to an error on Ringo's part
3) The incredible feel he displayed in combining swing time and straight time in the same song. Straight fills in a swingtime song, changing from section to section, it's subtle and very, very hard to pull off. Jim Keltner is the only other drummer I've heard manage it.
(There's more Ringo love here and here)
It's true that none of the band were virtuosos. They never left the stage for 20 minutes while Ringo got his groove on and set his gong on fire (oooh missus) or George whipped out the violin bow. They all played for the song. Always and forever. But the band boasted 3 solid competent guitarists, McCartney was a genius multi-instrumentalist and Lennon and McCartney were world class vocalists.
6) Sergeant Pepper may be a classic album but I don't really like it, and the individual songs aren't that great
RIGHT. And WRONG. And HALF RIGHT. - Yes it is a classic album. Just so you know. But here's the surprise. I really like it! I heard Pepper a lot growing up, and didn't rate it. I think the reason was aged 15 I was looking for songs that would work in a heavy metal context. While The Who and even Abba (don't ask) had tracks that would translate, Pepper was a dud. But that's no way to judge an album! It's true it has less 'stand alone' songs than any other album (bar Abbey Road) and it would have been stronger with Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever. But c'mon - A Day In The Life? And I personally love Within You Without You, When I'm Sixty Four and Getting Better.
7) The Beatles are overrated
WRONG - Ridiculous as it may sound the Beatles are underrated purely because they so lauded for unimportant superficial reasons that it cause people to miss the most crucial thing. They were the greatest songwriters since the Broadway showtune writers like Gershwin, Kern and Porter
8) The Beatles are the greatest band in history
RIGHT - The combination of great songs plus innovation in business, technology, marketing, breaking box office, viewing and chart records and other 'firsts' mean no one act will ever be able to touch the fab four
9) The Beatles were a great live band
Pretty much WRONG - The Beatles were a great live band long before they were recording artists but by the time they finished in 69-70 they were abysmal and you could argue that they began to go downhill as soon as Brian Epstein began limited them to playing less than an hour per live gig.
Think about this. Next time you listen to a classic Beatles song reflect on the fact that you're almost certainly hearing the very last time that the Beatles EVER played that song.
10) I want to be Woody Guthrie when I grow up
WRONG - Two years ago my ambition was to have the breadth of songwriting ability of Woody Guthrie – a man that could tackle the political This Land Is Your Land and then turn round and knock out a kids classic like Going To The Zoo.
Glossing over the fact the Guthrie didn't write the latter song (Tom Paxton did) I've found a new role model. Who else could kick off an album with a snide political R&B song, followed by a Puff The Magic Dragon wannabe then a Raga meet Classical song about isolation and make it all sound unified? Revolver-era Beatles, that who.
So now I want to be the Beatles (if and) when I grow up.
I know a lot of my readers grew up on Abbey Road and cut their teeth on Rubber Souls, but can you remember any preconceptions you had before listening to the Beatles? Were you right?
Read the previous parts here and here.
5) None of the Beatles were very good players. Especially Ringo
WRONG - Forget 'Bigger Than Jesus', no Beatles quote has been more misunderstood and misused than Lennon's “Ringo isn't even the best drummer in the Beatles” wisecrack. And it was just that - a wisecrack. So for the record here's three reasons why Ringo was an amazing drummer
1) The sheer number of beats and styles he navigated with ever really repeating himself over 211 songs
2) The fact that in 7 years of recording that only a handful of takes broke down due to an error on Ringo's part
3) The incredible feel he displayed in combining swing time and straight time in the same song. Straight fills in a swingtime song, changing from section to section, it's subtle and very, very hard to pull off. Jim Keltner is the only other drummer I've heard manage it.
(There's more Ringo love here and here)
It's true that none of the band were virtuosos. They never left the stage for 20 minutes while Ringo got his groove on and set his gong on fire (oooh missus) or George whipped out the violin bow. They all played for the song. Always and forever. But the band boasted 3 solid competent guitarists, McCartney was a genius multi-instrumentalist and Lennon and McCartney were world class vocalists.
6) Sergeant Pepper may be a classic album but I don't really like it, and the individual songs aren't that great
RIGHT. And WRONG. And HALF RIGHT. - Yes it is a classic album. Just so you know. But here's the surprise. I really like it! I heard Pepper a lot growing up, and didn't rate it. I think the reason was aged 15 I was looking for songs that would work in a heavy metal context. While The Who and even Abba (don't ask) had tracks that would translate, Pepper was a dud. But that's no way to judge an album! It's true it has less 'stand alone' songs than any other album (bar Abbey Road) and it would have been stronger with Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever. But c'mon - A Day In The Life? And I personally love Within You Without You, When I'm Sixty Four and Getting Better.
7) The Beatles are overrated
WRONG - Ridiculous as it may sound the Beatles are underrated purely because they so lauded for unimportant superficial reasons that it cause people to miss the most crucial thing. They were the greatest songwriters since the Broadway showtune writers like Gershwin, Kern and Porter
8) The Beatles are the greatest band in history
RIGHT - The combination of great songs plus innovation in business, technology, marketing, breaking box office, viewing and chart records and other 'firsts' mean no one act will ever be able to touch the fab four
9) The Beatles were a great live band
Pretty much WRONG - The Beatles were a great live band long before they were recording artists but by the time they finished in 69-70 they were abysmal and you could argue that they began to go downhill as soon as Brian Epstein began limited them to playing less than an hour per live gig.
Think about this. Next time you listen to a classic Beatles song reflect on the fact that you're almost certainly hearing the very last time that the Beatles EVER played that song.
10) I want to be Woody Guthrie when I grow up
WRONG - Two years ago my ambition was to have the breadth of songwriting ability of Woody Guthrie – a man that could tackle the political This Land Is Your Land and then turn round and knock out a kids classic like Going To The Zoo.
Glossing over the fact the Guthrie didn't write the latter song (Tom Paxton did) I've found a new role model. Who else could kick off an album with a snide political R&B song, followed by a Puff The Magic Dragon wannabe then a Raga meet Classical song about isolation and make it all sound unified? Revolver-era Beatles, that who.
So now I want to be the Beatles (if and) when I grow up.
I know a lot of my readers grew up on Abbey Road and cut their teeth on Rubber Souls, but can you remember any preconceptions you had before listening to the Beatles? Were you right?
Friday, 16 July 2010
Book Review: Summer of Love: The Making of Sgt. Pepper – George Martin
It’s tempting to think that the best accounts of the Beatles career are always going to be by those who were actually there. George Martin potentially stands out above all others because he was as close as it was possible to be, without being a Beatles, he WASN’T on drugs during the crucial period, he was and remains a fan and writes as a musician. But though this book is an enjoyable amble through 1967 it yields no great insight or revelation. Perhaps it’s the plethora of interviews Martin’s already given, perhaps because much of what he witnessed still exists on the Abbey Rd masters.
E.M.I. = English Misers Inc.
If you can filter out Martin’s purple prose the best parts are the pictures he paints of everyday life at Abbey Road where “legendary meanness was company policy” from the eternally padlocked fridge to the hard shiny toilet paper that was more suitable for making kazoos than wiping your bottom on. His descriptions of wrestling with archaic gear like the Mellotron (“a horizontal wardrobe”) and the home made frequency changer (“a Diplodocus-sized washing machine lookalike”) make you all the more appreciative of what he had to go through.
Life with Lennon
Speaking of trials, the book is revealing about his working relationship with John Lennon. Bringing Strawberry Fields et al to life were some of Martin’s greatest achievements but it was a thankless task. Lennon vision was massive but he had neither the skill, nor ultimately the discipline to bring any of them about. “I want to smell the sawdust”, “I want to sound like a Buddhist monk singing from the top of a mountain” and when presented with the technical impossibility of his demands, “Well George, I’m sure you can fix it”. How soul destroying then to be told by Lennon years later that “most of what the Beatles did was rubbish” and he wanted to rerecord it all. Though Martin is unfailingly gracious and forgiving that seems to speak volumes about Lennon’s high appraisal of his own gift and his lack of appreciation of Martin’s.
Nicely illustrated with some decent photos, this is a good book. Not worth going out of your way to hunt down, but pick up Summer of Love: The Making of Sgt. Pepper if you see it going cheap.
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