Music Revolution
A Rock and Roll Tour de Force -- Picture courtesy of Wikpedia
by blogSpotter
How is it that we have devolved so much in 40 years? Think back to 1969 -- a man walked on the moon, Ford had came out with its most kick-ass, muscular Mustang, and the Beatles gave us Abbey Road. Come back to the present and what do we have? We have a stultified space program featuring a backed-up-toilet Space Station, the questionable rap lyrics of R Kelley and blandified cars from car companies going out of business. Maybe we shouldn’t fault ourselves too much. The decade of the 60’s was a hard act to follow, especially in music.
The entire Beatles catalog has been recently digitally remastered and I just availed myself of 3 albums missing in my collection: Rubber Soul, Revolver and Abbey Road. These albums represent the middle-to-end of the Beatles’ amazing trajectory and each album (from 1965, 1966 and 1969 respectively) represent logical phases in the evolution of the group’s style and message. Rubber Soul gives us more folk guitar with intimations of things to come … sitar music and “ooh la la” background vocals – things that hark to a psychedelic future.
Revolver is considered the 3rd best rock album ever made, in a poll conducted by UK’s Guardian. With a cover featuring the beautiful line-art collage of Beatles artist friend Klaus Voorman, Revolver is considered to be one of the first (if not the first) psychedelic record albums. It featured innovations in sound effects, backward sequencing, electronics and instrument experimentation. Not only that, the topics of the songs were more cryptic and sometimes couched in symbolic wrappers. "She Said" is supposedly a direct repeat of a conversation with Peter Fonda, where he discussed a near death experience.
Abbey Road is remarkable as a finale to the Beatles’ short tenure (short compared to the venerable Rolling Stones anyhow). The album has the gorgeous guitar riffs of George Harrison; "Here Comes the Sun", is probably one of the best songs ever written by anyone, anywhere. But what gripped me on my most recent listening was the sequence starting with "Polythene Pam", followed by "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window", and finally "Carry That Weight". Each segment blends seamlessly to the next, almost like a rock opera. I listened to this on the way to work – nearly had to pull the car over to digest and comprehend the beauty and complexity of what was delivered.
Once upon a time, I thought the Rolling Stones was a better group. The mundane sex themes of the Stones somehow seemed earthier and more accessible to my adolescent mind. While I still love the Stones and think that they rule over a certain realm, the Beatles are unquestionably the best rock group of all time. I sincerely think they’ll be in the realm of Shakespeare and Mozart – standards for all the ages. If you haven’t done so yet, go to Starbucks or Target and pick up the remastered editions of these musical legends.
© 2009 blogSpotter
posted by blogspotter @ 8:01 PM
3 Comments:
2 comments:
1. Revolver has always been the least favorite of the Beatles' albums I've liked enough to purchase copies of (I only own about 8). It's always felt kind-of uneven to me. "Tomorrow Never Knows," "Doctor Robert," "For No One," "And Your Bird Can Sing," "Here There and Everywhere" and "Eleanor Rigby" are wonderful, "Yellow Submarine" is always fun, "Taxman" was good but now overplayed in mainstream media to exhaustion, "Got To Get You Into My Life" and "Good Day Sunshine" are painfully dated and droll and the rest of the album just kind of ... sits there. Inspiring nothing. Doing Nothing. Compare to Abbey Road which had not a bad track on it.
2. Abbey Road was not the finale'. Both The Beatles (White Album) and Let It Be came after.
All in all, however, I'd agree. Almost nothing the "kids" today are creating can match it. (Though E, Fountains of Wayne and a few others come close.)
Pop culture standards are so low that it will take nothing less than a cultural "revolution" to bring about an improvement in quality in ALL areas. Music is only the tip of the iceberg.
My guess is that you've already experienced the best of the best.
I've heard that some albums toward the end were released out of the order in which they were recorded. Also on "Let It Be" one source said they were infighting and doing separate sessions to avoid each other (not really a group anymore).
Just listened to HELP which was early '65. The songs are simple little guitar ditties, like what you might hear in a Frankie Avlon movie. "Day Tripper" and the title track are more ambitious.
Even the greats slipped after the 60's. Paul McCartney ended up doing "Silly Love Songs" w/ Wings. Paul Simon went from "Sound of Silence" to "KodaChrome". The 1970's still tower over the 2000's musically. Don't know why the 60's were so incredibly inspired.
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