rec.music.beatles newbie alert

[oldernow]

Hello, I'm new to this newsgroup, but *not* new to the Beatles.

Tiny bits of context:

Favorite Beatle: John
Favorite song: You've Got To Hide Your Love Away

Hope this place still sees some (inter)action!

[Blueshirt]

Hello, I'm new to this newsgroup, but not new to the Beatles.
Favorite Beatle: John

Of course. Mine too.

Favorite song: You've Got To Hide Your Love Away

"In my Life"

[oldernow]

Post by Blueshirt

Post by oldernow
Favorite song: You've Got To Hide Your Love Away

"In my Life"

Definitely a strong contender on this end.

I'm also wondering whether others here bother with
alt.music.beatles. I wasn't sure whether to crosspost
my first post here there as well.

[Blueshirt]

Post by oldernow

Post by Blueshirt

Post by oldernow
Favorite song: You've Got To Hide Your Love Away

"In my Life"

Definitely a strong contender on this end.
I'm also wondering whether others here bother with
alt.music.beatles. I wasn't sure whether to crosspost
my first post here there as well.

Nah, the alt. group gets very little traffic... and of that very little,
most of it is spam!!!

[oldernow]

Post by Blueshirt
Nah, the alt. group gets very little traffic... and of that very little,
most of it is spam!!!

I appreciate that heads up!

[Norbert K]

Post by Blueshirt

Hello, I'm new to this newsgroup, but not new to the Beatles.
Favorite Beatle: John

Of course. Mine too.

Favorite song: You've Got To Hide Your Love Away

"In my Life"

It's complicated, because the pre- and post-LSD John Lennons were two very different people -- as far as personality, songwriting, etc.

The pre-LSD Lennon might have been my favorite Beatle, but it really is a tough call. Plus, a lot of the best songs were true Lennon-McCartney collaboations, with the duo "writing eyeball-to-eyeball," as Lennon put it.

[oldernow]

Post by Norbert K
It's complicated, because the pre- and post-LSD John Lennons
were two very different people -- as far as personality,
songwriting, etc.
The pre-LSD Lennon might have been my favorite Beatle, but it
really is a tough call. Plus, a lot of the best songs were
true Lennon-McCartney collaboations, with the duo "writing
eyeball-to-eyeball," as Lennon put it.

No doubt about all that.

But I'm fine with the pre/post acid John. I'm way older
now than when one of my aunts "learned me the Beatles" in
what was probably 1964-ish, and have certainly been a very
different person and many points along the way. And some
of the differences certainly had degrees chemical influence
behind them.

[Norbert K]

Post by oldernow

Post by Norbert K
It's complicated, because the pre- and post-LSD John Lennons
were two very different people -- as far as personality,
songwriting, etc.
The pre-LSD Lennon might have been my favorite Beatle, but it
really is a tough call. Plus, a lot of the best songs were
true Lennon-McCartney collaboations, with the duo "writing
eyeball-to-eyeball," as Lennon put it.

No doubt about all that.
But I'm fine with the pre/post acid John. I'm way older
now than when one of my aunts "learned me the Beatles" in
what was probably 1964-ish, and have certainly been a very
different person and many points along the way. And some
of the differences certainly had degrees chemical influence
behind them.
--
Oldernow
gemlog | gemini://tilde.club/~oldernow | gemini://bbs.geminispace.org/u/oldernow

I did my share of all that stuff, too. However, as his best friend Pete Shotton phrased it, John Lennon turned his life into a "continuous acid trip" -- only to end up surrounding himself with predatory nuts.

Can you imagine the John Lennon who once labored alongside Paul McCartney at the piano in search of *just that right chord* dribbling a two-chord piece of drivel like "Give Peace a Chance"?

[oldernow]

Post by Norbert K
However, as his best friend Pete Shotton phrased it, John
Lennon turned his life into a "continuous acid trip" --
only to end up surrounding himself with predatory nuts.

It can happen to the best of us here on Planet Predatory Nuts.

Post by Norbert K
Can you imagine the John Lennon who once labored alongside
Paul McCartney at the piano in search of *just that right
chord* dribbling a two-chord piece of drivel like "Give Peace
a Chance"?

Clearly not his finest work. And yet even in his alongside
McCartney days did he manage to output "Run For Your Life",
which he openly despised. I think one of the things I loved
most about him was his willingness to take artistic chances.

[Norbert K]

Post by oldernow

Post by Norbert K
However, as his best friend Pete Shotton phrased it, John
Lennon turned his life into a "continuous acid trip" --
only to end up surrounding himself with predatory nuts.

It can happen to the best of us here on Planet Predatory Nuts.

Post by Norbert K
Can you imagine the John Lennon who once labored alongside
Paul McCartney at the piano in search of *just that right
chord* dribbling a two-chord piece of drivel like "Give Peace
a Chance"?

Clearly not his finest work. And yet even in his alongside
McCartney days did he manage to output "Run For Your Life",
which he openly despised. I think one of the things I loved
most about him was his willingness to take artistic chances.
--
Oldernow
gemlog | gemini://tilde.club/~oldernow | gemini://bbs.geminispace.org/u/oldernow

Yeah, but you don't really think that "Run For Your Life" is on par with "Give Peace a Chance," do you? There's much to like about the former song. Even if you don't like RFYL, the bulk of John's work from that time is among his best. By the time of GPAC, he was a spent (or a drug- and Yoko-addled) force.

John bashed "Run For Your Life" in the Playboy interview, which was really a publicity campaign aimed at promoting Yoko, so I'm not sure he really believed the song to be bad. It was in this interview that John claimed McCartney subconsciously sabotaged his (John's) songs, and that a couple of his dreary, musically vacant songs were on par with his best Beatles songs -- in other words, he was spewing falsehoods and absurdities.

Yet, during interviews and his guest-DJ stint in 1974, John's pride in his Beatles work returned. Why? Because he was aay from Yoko.

If John had not fried his mind on acid, I believe, he would not have touched Yoko (or Alex Mardas, or Allen Klein) with a ten-foot pole. And his creative work would have stayed on track.

[oldernow]

Post by Norbert K
Yeah, but you don't really think that "Run For Your Life" is
on par with "Give Peace a Chance," do you? There's much to like
about the former song. Even if you don't like RFYL, the bulk of
John's work from that time is among his best. By the time of GPAC,
he was a spent (or a drug- and Yoko-addled) force.

I don't think they're equally good. But then I also don't expect
all of a music artist's work to be on equal footing, or improving
over time - especially with respect to my tastes. I don't think it
means anything in particular if/when one song doesn't seem as good
as another, e.g. that the artist lost or is losing their prowess.

I've written and recorded songs, and definitely prefer some to
others, but I don't take that inequity to mean something about my
skills. There are influences other than creative and/or performance
talent that go into winding up with a finished song, e.g. mood,
"the times", whether or not some asshole drove three inches off
my back bumper on the way home from work, whether or not a pretty
girl seemed to show interest in me while buying a Slim Jim at the
convenient store, etc., etc.

I mean, I realize fans what to analyze such, and I'm not faulting
you for doing so. I'm just expressing how I think/feel about it.

[Blueshirt]

Post by oldernow

Post by Norbert K
Yeah, but you don't really think that "Run For Your Life" is
on par with "Give Peace a Chance," do you? There's much to like
about the former song. Even if you don't like RFYL, the bulk of
John's work from that time is among his best. By the time of
GPAC, he was a spent (or a drug- and Yoko-addled) force.

I don't think they're equally good. But then I also don't expect
all of a music artist's work to be on equal footing, or improving
over time - especially with respect to my tastes. I don't think it
means anything in particular if/when one song doesn't seem as good
as another, e.g. that the artist lost or is losing their prowess.

With a band like The Beatles - that spanned so many years and
different styles - it would be impractical to expect every song to be
equal. Clearly they all wrote songs that were great and they all
wrote songs that were not so great... plus they all wrote songs that
sat somewhere in between. So nobody should expect every Beatles song
to be equally good.

[oldernow]

Post by Blueshirt
With a band like The Beatles - that spanned so many years and
different styles - it would be impractical to expect every song to be
equal. Clearly they all wrote songs that were great and they all
wrote songs that were not so great... plus they all wrote songs that
sat somewhere in between. So nobody should expect every Beatles song
to be equally good.

Indeed, the notion of "good" with respect to any category is useless
if/when all items therein are equal.

[Norbert K]

Post by Blueshirt

Post by oldernow

Post by Norbert K
Yeah, but you don't really think that "Run For Your Life" is
on par with "Give Peace a Chance," do you? There's much to like
about the former song. Even if you don't like RFYL, the bulk of
John's work from that time is among his best. By the time of
GPAC, he was a spent (or a drug- and Yoko-addled) force.

I don't think they're equally good. But then I also don't expect
all of a music artist's work to be on equal footing, or improving
over time - especially with respect to my tastes. I don't think it
means anything in particular if/when one song doesn't seem as good
as another, e.g. that the artist lost or is losing their prowess.

With a band like The Beatles - that spanned so many years and
different styles - it would be impractical to expect every song to be
equal. Clearly they all wrote songs that were great and they all
wrote songs that were not so great... plus they all wrote songs that
sat somewhere in between. So nobody should expect every Beatles song
to be equally good.

It would be absurd to expect all of their songs to be equally good. My point about "Give Peace A Chance" is that it is strikingly *bad* compared to just about all of John's earlier stuff, including "Run For Your Lfe."

[Norbert K]

Post by oldernow

Post by Norbert K
However, as his best friend Pete Shotton phrased it, John
Lennon turned his life into a "continuous acid trip" --
only to end up surrounding himself with predatory nuts.

It can happen to the best of us here on Planet Predatory Nuts.

Post by Norbert K
Can you imagine the John Lennon who once labored alongside
Paul McCartney at the piano in search of *just that right
chord* dribbling a two-chord piece of drivel like "Give Peace
a Chance"?

Clearly not his finest work. And yet even in his alongside
McCartney days did he manage to output "Run For Your Life",
which he openly despised. I think one of the things I loved
most about him was his willingness to take artistic chances.
--
Oldernow
gemlog | gemini://tilde.club/~oldernow | gemini://bbs.geminispace.org/u/oldernow

I just listened to "Run For Your Life" and "Give Peace a Chance" side by side. I felt that I was listening to two different songwriters -- one of them (RFYL) a focused songwriter; the other (GPAC) a drug-fried, incompetent street musician.

I urge others to try this experiment and post their comments.

[W.Dockery @news.novabbs.com (W.Dockery)]

Post by oldernow
Hello, I'm new to this newsgroup, but *not* new to the Beatles.
Favorite Beatle: John
Favorite song: You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
Hope this place still sees some (inter)action!

Great to see posts are still being made here in spite of the flood of spam on the Google Groups version of the newsgroup.


Highly recommend Nova BBS for reading and posting:

https://www.novabbs.com/arts/thread.php?group=rec.music.beatles

And yes, John was my favorite Beatle, although all four are high on my list.

[Blueshirt]

Post by W.Dockery @news.novabbs.com (W.Dockery)

Post by oldernow
Hope this place still sees some (inter)action!

Great to see posts are still being made here in spite of the flood
of spam on the Google Groups version of the newsgroup.

Looks like that isn't going to be the case very soon... ;-)

[General-Zod]

Post by Blueshirt

Post by W.Dockery @news.novabbs.com (W.Dockery)

Post by oldernow
Hope this place still sees some (inter)action!

Great to see posts are still being made here in spite of the flood
of spam on the Google Groups version of the newsgroup.

Looks like that isn't going to be the case very soon... ;-)

Try Nova BBS, nearly spam free:

https://www.novabbs.com/arts/thread.php?group=rec.music.beatles

[Blueshirt]

Post by W.Dockery @news.novabbs.com (W.Dockery)

Post by Blueshirt

Post by W.Dockery @news.novabbs.com (W.Dockery)
Great to see posts are still being made here in spite of the
flood of spam on the Google Groups version of the newsgroup.

Looks like that isn't going to be the case very soon... ;-)

https://www.novabbs.com/arts/thread.php?group=rec.music.beatles

I don't need to, I've always used a newsreader and a proper news
service, I wouldn't have touched Google Groups with a barge-pole!

I won't be lamenting the loss of all the spam either...