Beatle Genius
Beatle Genius
Big news: I have changed my opinion of the genius of the Beatles. I used to think that John and Paul were the true geniuses, with George and Ringo excellent but not at the same genius level. I now think that is wrong: George and Ringo were geniuses too! We need to distinguish genius from excellence or technical prowess. No one ever thought that John and Paul were genius-level musicians—either as instrumentalists or singers; what people thought was that they were creative geniuses, artistic geniuses. They had it. That indefinable magic. The look, the sound, the charisma. But so did the other two if you pay attention. George was a fantastic guitarist in his style, tone, and creativity; and he rocked. He could also sing great harmonies and stirring leads (e.g., Roll Over Beethoven, not to mention later classics). He also became a genius songwriter, as everyone now acknowledges. He looked and sounded great beside the other two. The three of them were incredible performers, in a class of their own. I don’t think anyone in the Stones or the Who were quite at George’s level, excellent as they are, let alone John and Paul. But what about Ringo—a genius? Now I speak as a drummer: I hereby assert that Ringo was also a creative genius as a drummer. He didn’t have the chops of Ginger Baker and many others, but I don’t think anyone thinks Ginger was a percussive genius—merely technically brilliant. Ringo, however, really gave a song what it needed; he hit the drums just right. His drumming in Twist and Shout is stupendous, but so it was in everything; I don’t know of a single weak drum part in a Beatles song (except those few played by Paul). Ringo was also a genius in his image: physically shorter, not as handsome, more modest and agreeable. He was the most loved Beatle. He sang With a Little Help from my Friends perfectly. So, the Beatles had four geniuses in the band, and I’m not sure any other band had any. Brian Wilson had some, so did Pete Townsend, maybe Steve Winwood—but no one shone as brightly as those four young men from Liverpool. They were incapable of junk and jointly revolutionized pop music. Their personalities alone lit up the world at a dreary time. And I say this as one who didn’t really love their middle period stuff (Rubber Soul, Revolver)—too experimental, not raw enough.
Hard to disagree about the Beatles… But I really miss another British band — Dire Straits, especially Mark Knopfler’s guitar. I still do not get it why their music is almost never played on the radio or SiriusXM in the last decade. Here is a particularly nice song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJqAwJCsKA0
They had a big MTV presence around 1990–Sultans of Swing, etc. I also liked Mark’s voice.
Actually I have quite often heard McCartney described as a genius bass player. And I agree. There are many examples of his brilliance, but probably the most famous is his melodic, rising and falling bass line in the Harrison song “Something.” If you haven’t heard that one lately, give it another listen while concentrating on McCartney’s contribution. Agreed on Harrison and Starr.
Yes, it’s excellent. He was already a great bass player in I Saw Her Standing There. He himself was great at Standing There with his bass.
Beatles are so old, they are now like Beethoven or Vivaldi. That’s not to detract from their greatness, it’s to add to it.
I’m too old to get into the current music scene and people will say the same about my faves from the 70s and 80s.
I remember being told by a middle-aged geezer back in 1965 that the Rolling Stones wouldn’t last.
Reminds me of my physics teacher – didn’t want to teach about super/semi conductors – said it was just a fad..
Everyone is a twit–except the two of us.
Paul McCartney was on SNL the other night as the musical act, but I didn’t watch it, because recently the audio for the musical acts has been atrocious, especially wrt the vocal, which is always too low, thus can’t have the impact it’s meant to have. Apparently the social media mob didn’t like it and was saying McCartney should hang it up. But I listened to his new release, and it’s pretty good, including the vocals, which are flawless and interesting. But the track “First star of the night” I had to immediately listen to a second time. It’s a first rate pop song by any critical standard. The chord changes and bass fills were quite creative and interesting, way beyond the insipidity of the usual pop fare of today. I hope he keeps on keeping on. I wonder what your take is on his new music, or on the SNL controversy.
I saw it. His voice is shot for volume, but ok for pitch. I thought the new song was pleasant enough. He is on the brink of needing to hang it up, but not quite yet. Mick J’s voice is remarkably strong for his age.