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The Beatles … Love

Welcome to our first e-mail blog. This is an idea that Brent and I both brought to the table. Brent had mentioned he had wanted to do this with his special lady friend out in Ohio, and I had seen this done on a few websites in the past. Basically the concept is an e-mail discussion/debate over a subject.

Today’s subject: The Beatles. We’re both huge fans of this seminal band, and it seems with the re-issues of their entire catalog and the release of their really cool looking Rock Band game, Beatlemania has re-swept the nation. So let’s discuss not all the awesome achievements of the lads from Liverpool, but the missteps they’ve taken during their collective and solo careers.

BILL: Let’s preface this by saying I am a big Beatles fan and think that the movie A Hard Day’s Night is an amazing piece of cinema. However, there are some thing The Beatles did that have not been “totally awesome.” I’m going to go with a misstep I think Sir Paul made … and that is Wings.

Bill thinks Paul McCartney's Wings was as ridonk as this photo of the band.
Bill thinks Paul McCartney's Wings was as ridonk as this photo of the band.

I know my girlfriend loves the band, but I was subjected to their greatest hits album when I worked at Barnes & Noble. I had to hear that album five times a day for two months. I cannot stand them. Outside of “Band On The Run,” I thought the band was really subpar. “Live And Let Die” was OK at best and the rest of their work seemed like lackadaisical Beatles re-treads.

BRENT: I will start by saying this: I once broke up with a girl because she said she didn’t “get” The Beatles. “‘Twist & Shout’ is fine,” she said. “But I don’t get the rest. It’s too poppy.”

It wasn’t the only reason I broke up with her. We didn’t have much else in common. But it was a main part. It bothered me that she wasn’t open to understanding how brilliant a band they were. How intricate their music is. There’s so much to discover about the Fabs — so much for everyone who likes any type of music. Danger Mouse’s The Grey Album alone shows that.

So in the wake of the re-rise of Beatlemania — what with their remastered albums and Rock Band — I will give you the main argument I use when stating that the Beatles are the most important musicians since Mozart.

You need only two points to explain why they are the greatest, grandest, most important, most thrilling band of all-time:

1. Their third-greatest member was George Harrison. George Harrison.

And 2. They did all of it — Ed Sullivan, moptops, Shea Stadium, bigger-than-Jesus, A Hard Day’s Night, ‘Ticket To Ride,’ facial hair, Sgt. Pepper, Apple Records, Yoko, mapping out the future of modern music — in seven years of worldwide popularity. Seven years. Some bands make one album in seven years. The Beatles made 13. And all of them were genius.

‘I Am The Walrus’ popped on my iPod last night. And usually, because I’ve heard Beatles songs 14,000 times, I skip by them. But I listened to the whole thing last night. It’s perfect. Everything about that record is perfect. Yes, the lyrics and the music are fantastically trippy. But listen to how it flows. How the off-set spoken interludes and off-kilter strings mix in flawlessly.

The Beatles are beautiful.

Brent Johnson can't get enough of The Beatles
Brent Johnson can't get enough of The Beatles

That said, I will give you a few reasons the Beatles weren’t FLAWLESS:

1. Listen to ‘The Word.’ Many say it was the start of whimsical psychedelia. Fair enough. But it’s an example of how some Beatle songs are over-praised simply because they’re Beatle songs. The lyrics are fey. The melody is annoying. The piano is too plucky. It’s one reason Rubber Soul isn’t perfect.

2. A Hard Day’s Night is a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant movie. Help! is not. Nor is Magical Mystery Tour.

3. Neither is Yellow Submarine. Sad fact: The Beatles didn’t even do the voices of The Beatles in that cartoon. And the soundtrack is a lame excuse for an album — Beatles or otherwise.

4. John Lennon ruined everything. His egotistical stance and insecurity tore them apart. And for what? An incredibly overrated solo career. His first two albums — Plastic Ono Band and Imagine — are pure genius. The rest? Decent stuff, but subpar considering the man who made it. No one held Lennon to the standard they did McCartney when the Beatles broke up. But Lennon seemed like he wasn’t trying. Maybe he was too occupied with Yoko or alcohol.

Which brings me to Wings. Sorry, Bill. I friggin’ love Wings. McCartney is a master of melody, even when he started to slip on his often silly lyrics. I think everyone wanted Wings to fail — because Linda was in the band, because Paul tried to pretend it was a real group and not his backing band, because some of their songs were slop. But as a whole, their catalogue was better than most ’70s bands. After all, their frontman was Paul McCartney.

My theory: John and Paul simply worked better together. They could reign in each other’s bad tendencies: John’s overwroughtness, Paul’s tweeness. And when they went solo, they suddenly had to come up with whole albums on their own. Tough thing to do.

On a final note, the greatest solo album put out by a Beatle? All Things Must Pass by George Harrison. Sweeping production by Phil Spector. And knockout songs that John & Paul stupidly rejected for the Beatles.

Take That.

Editorial Note: Due to our work schedules, we didn’t get a chance to continue the debate. However, I think we can all agree that what Brent wrote here is absolutely genius.

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