People say the Beatles were great. They weren't so great. They were great in the way that leeches were great, back when leeches were cutting-edge medicine. Now we have thermometers and stuff, and leeches have been relegated to ... well, somewhere, which is where they belong.
So: the Beatles. Half their lyrics were inane and the other half were provably wrong. And since lyrics are half of music -- for half of the song, there's singing -- well, I don't know what percentage of the average Beatles song sucks. I mean, that's a lot of math right there. I didn't come here to do a lot of math. Equations aren't so great either. But it's a lot. From time to time, we'll take a look at a verse or chorus to support this hypothesis.
Today's song: Strawberry Fields Forever:
Living is easy with eyes closed
File this under 'inane'. With your eyes closed, you bump into a lot of crap, and any idiot can walk around bumping into a lot of crap. I wouldn't say we're off to an especially deep start.
Misunderstanding all you see
Misunderstanding is not all you see with your eyes closed. Oh, the great John Lennon never closed his eyes and pressed his hands against his eyeballs really hard until he started seeing stars and stuff? Wasn't he high half the time anyway? If he wasn't seeing stuff with his eyes closed, he was doing it wrong. Cat, you're a Beatle. Have some pride. Get your money's worth, OK? Also, hadn't he taken up with Yoko by this point? Because I would think he'd be an expert on living with his eyes closed by then, if you get my drift.
It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out
It doesn't matter much to me
Fine. If you can't be bothered, neither can I.
So This Is Christmas
5 days ago
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2 comments:
John said the song was "psycho-analysis set to music" while tripping on acid. And smoking hash. And George playing the swarmandal. And Paul working the mellotron. And Ringo being his over-rated self. Clearly, by '66, the Lads from Liverpool were exhausted. Were they geniuses? Were they crazy? They didn't know what to believe. Hence, Strawberry Fields.
Two years later, "Happiness is a Warm Gun" followed. Enough said, Kimo Sabe.
The difference in focus & clarity is stunning in '63 when the lads go to work fueled with a little bit of grass and a whole lot of uppers, and their choice of any screaming, excited, and perfectly willing young American or European woman:
"She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah
She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah
She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah, YEAH"
Thank you.
Tonto! I had no idea! You mean all this time we could have been talking about whether the Yellow Submarine album was underrated instead of sacrificing those soldiers while Jim Morrison mocked our manhoods? Although I might have misinterpreted that last part.
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