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Yes! Yes yes yes! My favorites are Another Roadside Attraction and Even Cowgirls Get the Blues followed very closely by Jitterbug Perfume. They each deal with mysticism, religion and its affect on society, women's issues, pop culture, un-pop culture, history and just about everything else. Very very good stuff, I highly recomend it.
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
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I guess I didn't come up with that line after all, because I loveStill Life with Woodpecker. I wasn't wild about Cowgirls, and I haven't read the others, but Woodpecker is kind of like The Princess Bride on crack. Good crack, though.
I remember "Wait for Baby!" and the two mantras, but I didn't remember that the two kinds of people thing was from that book. I have to reread it.
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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SLwW was the first one I read, and I also love it. It's a pretty good intro to his work, but it doesn't deal with some of the topics I find most interesting in his other work, like religion, and to be honest, Lee Cheri gets a little annoying towards the end. You might want to try some of his others. If you didn't like ECGtB, you probably won't like ARA either, but Jitterbug or Firece Invalids Home from Hot Climates might be more along the lines of what you liked in SLwW. (particluarly Jitterbug)
Also, the two kinds of people line may have come from another TR book, but I'm sure I heard it from him.
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John was much better musically. Paul is catchy but substanceless musically, mostly. Without John the Beatles would never have been an important band. Paul is ear-candy. John is the real musical light of the group. George was also pretty awesome. Ringo was extremely lucky. My order is John, George, Paul, Ringo.
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George? Are you kidding? have you heard his stuff after the first couple of solo years? It's terrible.
Posts: 867 | Registered: Dec 2003
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I'm with Tatiana exactly. Even if the only song George ever wrote was 'My Sweet Lord' that makes him a slight favorite over Paul in my mind. What a beautiful song.
I like it when people write music that, as Morrissey would say, says something to me about my life.
Paul just didn't do that a whole heck of a lot. To me, a lot of Paul's stuff is kind of cringeworthy, what with all the sap and the molasses. It's like the instant the Beatles were over he turned into, I dunno, sapmaster McCartney or something. Wings?
The man's music just doesn't speak to me. He needed John to be good. He needed to be balanced by the challenge of another, darker, human mind. And he didn't have that (it seems to me) after The Beatles.
Now, when I apply the same argument to John, what I find myself thinking is that John Lennon's solo stuff was musically not as interesting as Beatles music, but in terms of saying something, it was probably better. And that might be because John *did* go on with the challenge of another mind in his life. (And I'm speaking in terms of creative collaboration here.) Of course I mean Yoko. I think 'O Yoko' is a more beautiful love song than I've ever heard Paul do. Or 'Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)' or even 'Jealous Guy'.
That was sap done right. Because it dug into something more specific than big mooney-eyed love too deep to express without using words so vague (love, forever) that they really meant nothing. He was writing about his family and his lif--
You know what? That's what it boils down to. To me, the difference between Paul and John is not in talent or songwriting ability. Pick either one. Put them together or tear them apart; you'll have two of the greatest songwriters who ever lived. The difference is honesty.
John was honest. John bore everything. John ripped out his soul and put it on the table. Paul wrote 'Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da.'
Posts: 2267 | Registered: May 2005
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Quoting TL: "Even if the only song George ever wrote was 'My Sweet Lord' that makes him a slight favorite over Paul in my mind. What a beautiful song."
But "My Sweet Lord" was ripped off (subconsciosly or not) from the Chiffons' "He's So Fine". George lost a lawsuit over it in the late 70s.
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*Listening* - They do sound a lot alike. Similar tunes. Yes. That doesn't negate the beauty of 'My Sweet Lord'. I like the tune, but that was never what I was talking about when I said it was beautiful. It's the meaning of what Harrison is singing about -- that yearning for a connection with God -- that longing for a deeper meaning. I feel that. I relate to that. It's goes a bit deeper than 'He's So Fine'.
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Yeah, and "Here Comes the Sun" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and even "I'm Happy Just to Dance With You". George was a fantastic songwriter and musician.
I've actually had 3 favorite Beatles in my life. When they first came out the other girls in my neighborhood loved Paul, I think because he was the cutest, while I, for reasons I can no longer remember, loved George. The Beatles were huge for us when I was 5, 6, 7, 8 around that time. I had Beatles posters on my wall and the AM radio that we listened to all the time played the Beatles more than any other group. It was ridiculous because often 7 or 8 of the top ten songs would be Beatles songs. I had Beatles 45s (small vinyl records played at higher speed) that we played again and again. I had dreams about meeting the Beatles and them coming to our neighborhood to hang out. One day when I was 6 or 7 I dreamed that I loved Paul best, and when I woke up it was true. I was a Paul fan for the next however many years, I forget exactly, because I liked the simple sweet songs like I've Just Seen a Face, Yesterday, Let It Be, The Long and Winding Road, Mother Nature's Son, Your Mother Should Know, etc.
But at some point as I got more musically mature, I realized that the most interesting stuff musically was always John (and to a lesser extent George). Glass Onion, I Am the Walrus, Sexy Sadie, Happiness is a Warm Gun, In My Life, and so on. I came to realize that the musical heart of the Beatles was John. He was why they were so good. Paul could write sweet songs, but without John, Paul was just sappy. John was the one who made it matter. He had "it".
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John Lennon makes stupid hearts fly over my head. He also looked vaguely Japanese. i never understand why as he was born in England. John was just soooooooo cool and had a great voice and was just awesome. So I totally agree with folks praising on John Lennon
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Point taken, TL. I always found John the 'real artist', the deeper, darker, and therefore more interesting of the two (him and Paul), and the strength of his devotion to his family that was his life during the last part of it, basically surrendering his career (at least that part of it) for them struck a chord with me too. The thing everybody always said about the Beatles, after they broke up, was that the band was always greater than the sum of its parts. They made each other better, in other words. Having said that, Paul wrote some GREAT songs. John was the edgy one, the darker, more tormented, probably more intellectual one, while Paul was the more 'ordinary guy'. And he's a great bass player too. I love both their stuff, even George's stuff while he was with them. JUST THE BEST BAND EVER.
Posts: 867 | Registered: Dec 2003
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probably gonna get killed for this, but....
quote:John was honest. John bore everything. John ripped out his soul and put it on the table.
...And yet he was such a loser Dad to his son Julian. I have a problem with people who can't seem to be caring parents to ALL their children, and yet then are hailed as so profoundly ethically enlightened. Kids need love, appreciation, acceptance, and encouragement. In those terms, it's not that hard. Giving it to one child (Sean) but not the other smacks of...something.
Posts: 1346 | Registered: Jun 1999
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I'd go with George. I won't even bother posting in the other thread, because Eric Clapton is the only person alive today who is allowed to play While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
Posts: 145 | Registered: Apr 2007
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NotMe, have you heard the Jeff Healy Band's version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps?? It's appalling, should be retitled While My Guitar Hysterically Shrieks!
Posts: 867 | Registered: Dec 2003
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Uprooted, would high school kids today ever have seen one or know they existed? I just figured they needed to be defined. Maybe I'm wrong. Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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My order is John, George, Paul, Ringo.
