The Beatles were celebrated for being a lot of things, but deep down, they were just a barbershop quartet who struck it big. It was their melodicism and their harmonies that gave them that mass appeal that went far beyond teen-idoldom. It was a neat … Continue reading This Boy
Even two years into his career, Paul McCartney was already in full McCartney mode, writing love ballads that would cause sugar poisoning if they weren’t so damn perfect. It’s enough to make the most cynical and battle-hardened soul feel like a screaming teenage girl, ripping … Continue reading Things We Said Today
I’ll fight to the death with anyone who says that The Beatles are overrated. But, having said that, even I have to admit that they wrote some hopelessly corny songs in their early days. Who can blame them, though; they were just teenagers when they … Continue reading There’s A Place
Well, this certainly plays very differently in today’s context. George Harrison shuffled off this mortal coil far too soon, but in some regards he’s lucky he went when he did; he doesn’t have to do a 180 on his first protest song. In 1966 The … Continue reading Taxman
It’s the conventional wisdom that the Beatles just burst into the world with their genius fully formed and their future legacy set in stone from the first note of their first single. Given that their first single was Love Me Do, that’s not too much … Continue reading A Taste of Honey
You’ve probably never listened to any of the weird Side 2 songs from Abbey Road out of context. The idea was, presumably, that by the time you got around to turning the record over, you’d be tripping your nuts off, and everything would just drift … Continue reading Sun King
Well, I’ve been absent a while. Moving, apparently, is time consuming. There’s nothing better to come back with than The Beatles, who need no commentary and no introduction. If you need the story of how they went about making their seminal psychedelic recording and the … Continue reading Strawberry Fields Forever
George Harrison’s marriage to Pattie Boyd may have ended in a whirl of drama but damn if it didn’t fuel some of his best writing. The Beatles themselves ended in a whirl of drama, an ugly breakup only hinted at in the idyllic video by … Continue reading Something
The Beatles didn’t singlehandedly convince ‘the establishment’ that rock and roll was worthy of the same respect as ‘proper’ music, but they certainly contributed more than a fair shakes towards earning that respect. It’s generally agreed that Sgt. Pepper was a catalyst in establishing rock … Continue reading She’s Leaving Home
If you’ve never heard the Beatles before, and you started with this song, you may frankly have a hard time understanding the mania. It’s an interesting glimpse, though, at what they might have ended up sounding like if they’d stayed the straightforward rock band they’d … Continue reading She’s a Woman
Lady Garfunkel's Song of the Day 