Posted on 05/17/2014 7:05:45 PM PDT by re_nortex
If you search my posting history, you'll find that I never really got acclimated to the rock music of the 50s, 60s and beyond. My tastes still remain rooted in Southern Gospel (The Kingsmen, Happy Goodmans, Florida Boys and such) and traditional country (Roy Acuff, Webb Pierce, Kitty Wells and the like).
Today while heading back from errands, my car radio happened to scan onto a station playing a song I had never heard before, "Things We Said Today" by the Beatles.
The minor feel and thrummy spaghetti western guitar are reminding me of Yardbirds’ Heart Full of Soul (1965):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXKE13PZz6c
“I exhumed Paul”
Actually it sounds a lot like The Hollies “Bus Stop.”
....
With that glimpse into my background, you may find this amusing. Long, long ago, during one of the Southern Gospel quartet conventions in Nashville's old Municipal Auditorium (where the Dixie Flyers hockey team used to play), I had to chance to visit one of the singing group's tour bus parked outside. While on the tour bus, imagine how shocked I was to see the Sgt.Pepper (Beatles) tape in the 8-track player. I was so naive that I thought the only music a gospel group would listen to would be others in that genre. :)
Cool. I hadn’t heard that one before. Maybe a little too smooth compared the original (my picky tastes speaking here). Find myself missing the jagged fuzz guitar lead on the original. Also not totally digging the gated reverb on the snare. But still cool. Chris Isaak’s next album was a total killer.
Yoko looks good there. Maybe I’m losing my mind.
It's very good. Of their early work i'd call it outstanding.
You’re not losing your mind...she does look fetching there.
Thanks! Glad it wasn’t just me.
On the other hand, by even late ‘60s standards it’s less than thrilling. Guess it depends on the framework you choose to judge it by.
The allure of the Beatles will always be that they were part of the Baby Boom culture, a demographic of young people that wanted to change the world.
The drugs, cigarettes, alcohol were all backdrop to the culture of the time. The Beatles were not leaders of it although in their effort to imprint a unique art stamp to pop music history they used it to explore new boundaries of musical art.
They were foolish, immature, lovable, funny and naughty. They were like the boys next door except they were extremely talented and handsome to the young girls of the era.
Some of their songs showed a wisdom and maturity well beyond their years and makes one wonder if George Martin had a guiding hand in it. John Lennon’s “In My Life” has been rated as one of the top 3 most beautiful songs ever written and it is hard to imagine the wisdom of the lyrics coming from a 24 year old.
They were used by the progressive left as icons of anti-establishment anti-capitalism but they themselves put the leftists in their place; just listen to the lyrics of “Revolution” and you can imagine conservatives saying “Damn straight John!”.
So they were a bit of an enigma but they mostly stuck to love songs and ballads.
John in his last years is said by many close to him to have come to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It’s so sad we weren’t able to see him fully grow up into a real great man.
Very interesting and I think quite perceptive. It's odd that the Beatles never made much of an impression on me when all four were alive. And now, half a century after the British Invasion, a chance stumbling across "Things We Said Today" on the radio is piquing my interest in their music. Sure, Southern Gospel remains my musical genre of choice but I'm not quite as dismissive of the Beatles as I once was based upon my reaction to the song and the fascinating comments in this thread. I now almost wish I would have given them a fair hearing way back then.
You’re not alone in missing them at the time and in fact it’s better to discover them now with all the politics of the era removed. It’s incredible to witness the youtube comments by young teenagers today who are absolutely enamored with them and their music. Even my 7 year old says “everyone loves the Beatles” and I can’t argue with that too much.
From Wikipedia:
"McCartney wrote the song in May 1964 while cruising the Caribbean aboard a yacht called Happy Days with his then-girlfriend Jane Asher. Music critic Ian MacDonald said, "The sombre lyric—provoked by the frustrating interruptions of a relationship between two career people—matches the lowering gloom of the music.""Things We Said Today" has a reverse nostalgia premise. McCartney said, "I wrote this on acoustic. It was a slightly nostalgic thing already, a future nostalgia. We’ll remember the things we said today, sometime in the future, so the song projects itself into the future."
Derailing my own thread, when I read that line about where Paul McCartney was located, I flashed back to Gary Hart's infamous yacht, Monkey Business. I'm glad you happened by this thread and that you enjoyed recalling "Things We Said Today". Realizing the song was from 1964, but totally new to me, it's taken 50 years off my age and I feel like I'm a spry 23 again! :)
Ain't Free Republic a great place.
I was 14 when the Beatles made their debut in New York. I always liked their work, and I thought their earlier music was best. I can remember being stationed at Pearl Harbor in 1970 when they broke up, and there was a lot of upset Beatle fans then.
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