Had a very long drive home from vacation today. I realized that despite my relatively advanced years, I really didn’t know the Beatles like I should. I was born in ‘63, so they by the time I was paying attention to rock music, the consensus was they were awesome but obviously not current. They were more our big brothers’ and sisters’ music than ours. Most of what I knew came from the Red and Blue compilation albums, and Sgt. Peppers and Magical Mystery Tour that I had on vinyl. So I loaded their core catalogue on my favourites in Apple Music, and started driving.
Some thoughts:
[ul]
[li] They were a three-chord rock band at heart right to the end, weren’t they?[/li][li] I now understand why Ringo Starr was, in fact, a fine drummer and formally acknowledge that my agnosticism all these years was misplaced[/li][li] Whoa - misogyny. Plenty of misogyny, eh? Like do the Stones ever once sing about killing women? (That’s a genuine question.)[/li][li] I have to go back and listen again, but I was surprised in the first several albums how much the drums were buried in the mix. I hadn’t noticed that about 60s music in general, and want to explore it further[/li][li] Conversely, was it my car speakers, or are the vocals frequently buried deeper in the mix than might be expected?[/li][/ul]
And I don’t want to create the wrong impression by using the term “core catalogue” earlier in this post. I only learned that was a thing when I looked up their discography to figure out what to listen to.
I was thinking just the other day about what my favorite Beatles song was, and even though they certainly came up with some amazing stuff (especially McCartney, although I always identified with Lennon in my youthful angst), I decided it was “I Saw Her Standing There.” To have been around when the Beatles’ total onslaught of the airwaves was going on (it started late '63 and crescendo’d in '64) I count as one of the many lucky things that happened to me
In order:
A three chord rock band… No, they were they exact opposite. Just don’t include covers.
I now understand why Ringo Starr… “A fine drummer” is like saying “Rembrandt was a fine painter” but we certainly agree on this.
Whoa - misogyny… You are talking about “Run For Your Life”. Based upon an Elvis Presley song. I don’t think there are any other examples of this.
And the mixing. Yes, absolutely terrible.
[li] Whoa - misogyny. Plenty of misogyny, eh? Like do the Stones ever once sing about killing women? (That’s a genuine question.)[/li][/QUOTE]
I don’t think there’s a lot of evidence of that, and usually the song that everyone points to is “Run For Your Life”. But the Beatles quickly showed that they were often writing songs using character voices that aren’t their own, so I don’t believe that assertion holds much water.
In Rubber Soul alone (where “Run” also appears), “Norwegian Wood” and “Drive My Car” are very obviously characters who aren’t actually John and Paul themselves (though they may be vaguely inspired by real events). It’s easy to conflate a love song to a personal I-statement, but that’s really simplistic, so writing a song in the voice of a character who is scarily possessive with the potential for real violence doesn’t necessarily mean they sign on to those beliefs. It’s a character study buried in a pop song, and very few bands were working at that level of sophistication in writing their own material at the time.
Certainly, Jagger/Richards were terrific songwriters too, but they have a lot more songs that one might interpret as misogynistic (from “Under My Thumb” to “Stupid Girl” and beyond), though that’s certainly open to debate. But The Beatles have very few and “Run” isn’t any more a tacit endorsement of jealousy and stalker behavior than David Byrne is when singing in the first person in “Psycho Killer”.
Well, I said they were a three-chord rock band at heart not that they were only a three-chord rock band. All I meant was I was surprised how much basic rock-n-roll there was in their work all the way through.
Regarding the misogyny, I didn’t say the Beatles as individuals were misogynist, I said there was plenty of misogynism in their music. I’m a firm believer in the intentional fallacy, so don’t project that onto their personal beliefs. In addition to the references above, there’s also Maxwell killing Joan when he picks her up on the date at the beginning of Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.
Anyway, don’t get me wrong. Enjoyed the experience greatly and glad I had the chance to listen to their output in one sitting!
Maybe in terms of energy, but, to me, while not quite the opposite of a 3-chord rock band (they’re not doing prog rock here), they’re definitely a harmonically interesting/complex band within the confines of popular music. Sure, the earlier stuff does tend more towards three- or four-chord songs, but even early stuff like “Thing We Said Today” get more involved quickly. When I think “three chord bands” I think of band like AC/DC and the Ramones. The Beatles kept you on your toes.
Anyhow, Ringo is awesome, and glad the experience helped you see why.
Remember: Back in the early 1960’s, it was considered acceptable for a man to “discipline” his wife and even his children with physical force. “They probably deserved it” was the reasoning, along with"He is the head of the household." The police could only arrest him if they saw him doing it. And even then, they would often tell the woman to leave the house until the man “cooled down”
The early Beatles were merely a reflection of this time.
I’d disagree. It’s a hell of a lot more clear that David Byrne is doing the equivalent of playing a part in “Psycho Killer” than it’s clear that John Lennon is doing anything like that in “You Can’t Do That,” “Run for Your Life,” and “Norwegian Wood.”
John Lennon had issues with women which he acknowledged later in life, and this is reflected in his work, but it makes up only a tiny sliver of the Beatles’ output (really just “Run for Your Life,” written rather lazily off an Elvis Presley song, and his contributions to Paul’s “Getting Better”). To say that there is “plenty” of misogyny in the Beatles’ catalog is a gross and inflammatory overstatement.
Three of the last four songs on Let it Be are “One After 909”, “For you Blue” and “Get Back”, so I’m sticking to my assessment. Once again, note the “at heart” in my statement. YMMV, of course!
Jasmine, it took about 1100 kilometers! 10 to 11 hours.
Here’s the tally: Joan killed when her date shows up in Maxwell’s Silver Hammer; trying to get over beating up women in Getting Better; threatening with death in Run for your Life; setting fire to a girls apartment in Norwegian Wood; forbidding a girlfriend to talk to another guy in Can’t Do That. If you’re tripping over the word “plenty”, I’ll have to ask you what “just enough” misogynism is. But I’ll concede the point, it’s only 5 of 217 songs, or a misogynist rate of 2.4%.
So is it just those five? (I missed a lot of the pre-Rubber Soul stuff, other than the singles. So I really don’t know.)
I think you’re minimizing You Can’t Do That in your description, fwiw. At least from the perspective of now, the singer’s practically the model of the controlling boyfriend who turns into an abusive boyfriend.
