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| From | "Jaimie Vernon" <bullseyecanada@hotmail.com> |
| Subject | Re: Another Bealtes? |
| Date | Tue, 03 Aug 2004 23:07:13 -0400 |
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At Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2004 22:45:48 Josh wrote:
>Stewart, all due respect, but I totally disagree.
>
>The Beatles were in fact far MORE than a totally kickass rock band. They
>were a cultural touchstone. If you walked down the street and you heard
>Revolver or Sergeant Pepper coming out of a window, you could walk in and
>instantly know about each other that you were "one of us." There was never
>a rock band before the Beatles (though there were some contemporary with
>them); They did it all first, from the getting huge to the ego clashes to
>the break-up to the solo careers. They created the template, and I think
>their intrinsic resonance contributed to that even becoming the template.
>
>You could argue that Nirvana meant the same thing for a different
>generation. But you'd be wrong. Because the Beatles were the first, and
>no
>one can ever be the first again. Its like asking if you'll ever lose your
>virginity a second time, if there'll ever be another first kiss. The
>Beatles don't go with the Stones and the Kinks; they go with JFK and
>landing
>on the moon and the Mets winning the World Series. The Who, it turns out,
>were not the first band to vomit in the bar; that would have happened in
>Hamburg.
>
>That's why I believe that as regards the "Youth of Today," if they have
>anything like the Beatles, you have to look entirely outside the construct
>of the rock band. I reiterate that the closest collective experience to
>the
>Beatles (and ultimately that's what the Beatles were, a collective
>defining
>generational experience that has not been matched by a pop group since, and
>won't be) for the Youth of Today is the Internet. And there will never be
>another Internet.
Yowza. Sounds like the rant of someone who believes that music begins and
ends with this band. I know musicians who HATE the Beatles....their frame of
reference evolved out of Stones, or Zeppelin, or Chuck Berry.
The Beatles are only as big as those who care about such things. Talk to my
father. The Beatles were a bunch of street punks who got lucky screaming
"Yeah Yeah Yeah" for three albums before McCartney wrote "Yesterday" and
made them respectible to my grandma's generation. If that's the influence
that changed the world then you make a valid point. But for diehard fans of
other bands, the Beatles are merely the enemy....not the progenitors.
Three points to keep in mind about The Beatles:
1) It was Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon" that was sent up in the
Voyager explorer to the other side of the galaxy....NOT the Beatles. It's
all about frame of reference.
2) With the exception of Queen and The Dave Clark Five, The Beatles were
nearly the last hold out to join the CD revolution.
3) The Beatles "template" will not survive the Internet.....as they've
balked at the idea of MP3 downloads on any website other than Apple Records.
In 100 years the Beatles will be but a footnote. There will have been more
names and more FIRSTS to have overshadowed everything they did for those
brief 8 years. Just as Wayne Gretzky overshadowed Rocket Richard and Gordie
Howe...so too shall someone overshadow him.
Jaimie Vernon,
President, Bullseye Records
http://www.bullseyecanada.com
Author, Canadian Pop Music Encyclopedia
http://www.canoe.ca/JamMusicPopEncycloPages
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