The beatles were fucking fantastic!

[Svartalf]

But do they listen to the Rites out of their own will or because somebody broadcast it to them?
I know I listen to much musical cruft on the radio I keep working every waking hour I'm at my place.

[Hermit]

More people listen to The Rites of Spring than Hey Jude, Yesterday, Here Comes The Sun etc?

I don't believe that for a second, and I also don't believe that Stravinsky could ever be accused of having garnered "massive popular acclaim", especially massive popular acclaim that has extended across half a century.

Dev. You drive around the outback of a country that is even more remote from civilisation than Australia, selling plonk to bottle'os. Before that you owned a bottle shop that sold plonk to Irish compatriots. Your disbelief comes as no surprise to me.

[Tero]

Oh. You asked me about who broke the tonal mould? I thought you defied me to name a single act in the history of music in the last 100 years that changed direction so radically but still garnered massive popular and critical acclaim. Stravinsky did, and not only did he become the most popular composer of the 20th century, but today more people listen to The Rites of Spring than Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da or any other Beatles hits.

Except for the first half of 1900s, Sibelius was at least equal to Stravinsky. A real change occurred between 1890 and Sibelius. We would be stuck with Richard Strauss and Grieg. Morning mood makes me puke.

[Svartalf]

Morning Mood? that's the opening to Peer Gynt, right?

[Tero]

Scrumple was referring to some Christy Moore as far as guitar playing and not strumming alone. Come on, name some wizard like Michael Hedges or Kottke.

But back to Beatles, here is the riffing, no worse a riff than any Jethro Tull riff:


That's right, the Beatles invented all of the 1970s bands too.

[Tero]

Lyrics refer to 4 Beatles
(Ringo)Here come old flattop. He come grooving up slowly
He got ju-ju eyeballs. He's one holy roller
He got hair down to his knees
Got to be a joker he just do what he please

[Verse 2]
(George)He wear no shoeshine he's got toe-jam football
He got monkey finger he shoot Coca-Cola
He say "I know you, you know me"
One thing I can tell you is you got to be free
Come together right now over me

[Verse 3]
(John)He bag production he got walrus gumboot
He's got Ono sideboard he's one spinal cracker
He's got feet down below his knee
Hold you in his arms till you can feel his disease
Come together right now over me

Righhht!

[Verse 4]
(Paul)He roller-coaster he's got early warning
He's got muddy water he's one mojo filter
He say "One and one and one is three"
Got to be good looking cause he's so hard to see
Come together right now over me

Line by line analysis
http://rock.rapgenius.com/The-beatles-c ... ote-373721

[Tero]

news reel announcer talk and girls screaming

[Mysturji]

Their body of musical work, ... expression, melody and creativity is without peer - a collection of songs so magnificent that they resonate massively with great swathes of humanity 50 years after they were written, music so powerfully brilliant it continues to entrance and delight new generations of listeners (how many new listeners for ragtime were there in 1963?), music borne of a singular age, so of its time, but so clearly for all time.

Love the hyperbole, Devogue. I daresay when it comes to that, more people listen to Led Zeppelin, Chopin, W.A. Mozart or J.S. Bach than The Beatles for the exact reasons you have listed, and Bach has been decomposing for over a quarter of a millennium now. So, no, the moptops where not without peer at all by any measure of listenership. They were tops in their time. The resonance of their creativity has all but ebbed away.

They are peerless within their genre, just as Bach is peerless within the Baroque, and Mozart in the Classical era. Creativity, innovation and courageous musical exploration while in the middle of extreme, widespread popularity is extraordinarily rare - my admiration for Queen is well documented - because the risk of becoming unpopular and losing one's core audience is often too difficult to contemplate, and that invariably does happen when a musician heads off on a tangent. The tangent the Beatles took was indeed extreme, just three years between the poppy I want to hold your hand and the gothic I am the walrus...it's just such a gigantic musical leap. My mother gave up on them but they pulled great swathes of the general public with them on their journey because while their output was so strange and outlandish their innate genius as musicians carried the day.

I defy you to name a single act in the history of music in the last 100 years that changed direction so radically but still garnered massive popular and critical acclaim.

They are peerless within their genre.

A bit less hyperbolic. Bravo.

I defy you to name a single act in the history of music in the last 100 years that changed direction so radically but still garnered massive popular and critical acclaim.

Stravinsky

...Umm... No.
Let's read that again, shall we?

I defy you to name a single act in the history of music in the last 100 years that changed direction so radically but still garnered massive popular and critical acclaim.

Please note that I am not saying a word about the quality of Stravinsky's music... merely commenting on the relative popularity of it.

Yeah, The Beatles were pretty good, but who's that "Vinski" guy? What was his first name? Steve? Strav? Never heard of him. Is he on iTunes or Spotify?

[Tero]

There be some girls with panties wet here!!!

[Rum]

I started this thread and the proof of the pudding is that it is still going! They changed everything!

[cronus]

I started this thread and the proof of the pudding is that it is still going! They changed everything!

Don't think they did. They got every aspect of their lives and the lyrics of their songs examined by the media and sycophants, like tea leaves in a tea-cup. I'm sure if it happened to me my morning dump would have a mega write up in the press someday too, allegorically speaking. They are a major brand in the neo-liberal system which is failing so many and they are helping provide some of the myth's and illusion of social liberal progress/freedom which are in reality denied so many. A debt fuelled dystopia of pipe dreams and yellow submarines. Take 'Revolution' They are against violent revolution when no other disruptive method is known when the pilot of a country decides on a economic suicide mission, into infinite growth and its consequences. Might work under the influence of LSD but out in the real world it is a unsustainable route....leading to a catastrophe akin to jumping off a tall building thinking you can fly. Beatles were stoned when they wrote their 'good interesting stuff....and it is dumb seeing them like role models, like some do.

[Rum]

What?

[cronus]

What?

They copied Oasis after a bad trip took them into the nineties, can't you dig the similarity?

[cronus]

...to put it another way. You don't realise when you are held within a idealogical straitjacket when you are in a ideological straitjacket. There is mass appeal for The Beatles, like under the NSDP Wagner was very popular. Then as is now, the endless invasions of other folks territories are all seen as reasonable at the time. Beatles are not exceptional, they were a product of their time for their time only. No universals, no genius. They practised enough at strumming guitars to become good at what they did. McCartney never produced anything of merit after The Beatles but he marketed what very little he had. Harrison was a woo merchant to the end. The smart one was Lennon but even he was a copier of ideas not a originator, and he wasn't a particularly nice guy up close from what I've come to understand.

[Tero]

What????