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What’s on your mind?
- Thread starter Gutwrench
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The Beatles are on my mind: How did four chaps - dudes, guys - four ordinary chaps from ordinary backgrounds in Liverpool produce such sublime music for the best part of a decade?
Together, they wrote (and performed) some of the best rock/pop music of the 20th century; individually, while exceptionally talented, none of them matched the heights that they had climbed with The Beatles.
Together, they wrote (and performed) some of the best rock/pop music of the 20th century; individually, while exceptionally talented, none of them matched the heights that they had climbed with The Beatles.
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Thanks, I may just give it a try if I am feeling brave. Problem is my employer would not likely pay for the accessories I need. I may just do alternate standing and sitting with what I have - just need to adjust my monitor and keyboard.
Beer is a necessity, milk too, libraries are treasure houses and buses well my sympathy. Here in the Helvetic Republic people whine if the public transport is 5 minutes late.
The bus into the city was at least 45 minutes late (and, predictably, packed), while I waited almost 50 minutes for the return one - they are supposed to run, or should run, every 15 minutes in summer, 20 minutes in winter.
Okay: I didn't have any pressing appointments to attend, and had no deadlines to meet; my time was my own. It was an inconvenience, an annoyance, not a catastrophe, or disaster.
However, (while waiting at one bus stop with bags, bags of books - well, books in my Swedish rucksack, and cheese in another bag), I was musing on how - had my mother still been alive, and if my life was still governed by the endless routine of meeting her needs - when one couldn't afford to be late, because people were relying on you, and waiting for you to appear so that they, in turn, could be released for their next appointment and commitments - it would have been next to impossible - and would have been most stressful - if one was relying on public transport for things that mattered.
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I don't feel sad, I don't feel happy, I feel something in between that I can't explain. We had our awards ceremony at school this morning, and it was very weird. The ceremony itself wasn't weird, it was just strange (and somewhat surreal) to be sitting at the front on chairs (as the seniors do every year). I've watched it happen for so many years, and now it was my turn. So I watched as the awards were presented to various students. At the same time, it was also almost a reunion, because we as a senior class hadn't been together for 3 weeks, and then today we all were there. So yeah, it was interesting to say the least. I can't find a better adjective. I'm sure I'm not the only one feeling this way today... Graduation is next Saturday, Memorial Day weekend.
As done as I am, and as much as I want to move onto the next thing, I will really miss this school and this class of students, it's been a wonderful ride!
As done as I am, and as much as I want to move onto the next thing, I will really miss this school and this class of students, it's been a wonderful ride!
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Unlike other groups (Rolling Stones, are you listening?) the Beatles developed during their sadly too short career as a group. Consciously or unconsciously they took inspiration from a wide range of earlier composers. I remember noting that the beginning of one of their songs (Yesterday??) is straight out of Mozart. These days they would have been sued for copyright infringement ...
They were..... I guess you're not familiar with the copyright issues around the song "Come Together" or "My Sweet Lord," both of which bear an uncanny resemblance to earlier songs written by other people.
Benedictine DOM liqueur and a good, classic movie.
Our village has a bus come twice a day. It hardly ever has anyone on it. I’ve not been on a bus (apart from on holiday in Barcelona a few years back) in decades.
It will be a sad day when im no longer able to drive and have to use a bus.
At least you weren’t going to a time sensitive appointment.
Glad you enjoyed it. I hated school. Everything about it. I attended as little as I could. Left at 15 and have never looked back. I just never wanted to be there.
Things are very different now I’m sure. I was much happier working full time and getting paid.
Of course not having a degree has caused me some issues, but I think I’ve overcome most of them.
I don’t mind the odd Beatles track, but they were not really my thing.
Now Queen on the other hand are an amazing band. The late great Freddie Mercury was a genius and born to perform. Gone too soon.
On my mind was my evening out last night with my Mum. It was nice to see her. We enjoyed a nice meal out.
She is really starting to look older. Also I’ve noticed her mind isn’t as sharp as it used to be.
Among my IT tasks for the evening were, show her how Sat Nav works (they’ve had the car 5 years). It’s a French car and the Sat Nav was set to France still.
Then I showed her how to send a picture message. Never used an Android phone so it wasn’t as simple as an iPhone (for me), but figured it out.
By the next time I see her I bet she’ll have forgotten.
Yeah, I did enjoy it! Although I think you're absolutely right, I will enjoy college (which is at a conservatory—although purely jazz-based, no classical, which is what I want). I've already met (online) some of my soon-to-be classmates, so I know what I'm getting into—and it's all great stuff!!
I didn't much care for school, - who does? - even as a teenager, I knew better than to subscribe to that nonsense about this being "the best years of your life", and besides, I was something of a late developer, if somewhat precocious intellectually - but I absolutely loved university.
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I forgot to ask how your evening with your mum went.
Glad that you enjoyed your meal and chat.
Unfortunately, "showing" her - them - something isn't usually enough; I must say that I do remember this.
My solution - and that of siblings, also - was to write out (sometimes with sketches) simple step-by-step instructions to that they have a reminder to hand when they wanted to do something of the sort.
In my experience, this can work a bit better (for a while).
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Sub-consciously, I suspect.
I cannot conceive of - for example - John (Lennon) sitting down and thinking to himself, "Right, Beethoven has a good line in melody here, let's see how I can tweak it" and coming up with "Because" (Abbey Road), or "Julia" (White Album).
Anyway, copyright has long expired with such gifted artists such as Mozart and Beethoven.
Concerns (and litigation) may lie with more recent sources of inspiration.
Nevertheless, irrespective of their (conscious or sub-conscious) sources of inspiration, they produced some superb and timeless music, and (perhaps unconsciously) introduced some superb classical forms into modern popular rock music.
A more recent (and quite controversial) case occurred when a British group called The Verve released a (chart-topping, best-selling) single named Bittersweet Symphony, which was considered a classic of the "Britpop" era.
They were sued by The Rolling Stones (who won the case) who claimed that this had been based on, or derived from, their song "The Last Time."
Yes, that's right, it was.
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Queen were brilliant, agreed, and some of their songs are superlative.
However, re the Beatles, - apart from their sheer ability at writing pleasing and popular songs (and increasingly complex albums) for the best part of a decade - they really developed and evolved and grew as a group as @DaveFromCampbelltown rightly remarks - a group of of composers, and musicians, and performers.
Their appetite for - and capacity for and sheer creative ability at - innovation and complexity and change, expressed through music - was extraordinary.
There are so many groups of that era - for the music really evolved and changed dramatically throughout the decade, - who caught the "zeitgeist" perfectly for a year or two, - with one or two great songs, or albums - but who somehow sounded obsolete within a short period of time, whereas The Beatles not only adapted to all of these musical changes, in many, if not most cases, they actually led and defined some of these changes in musical taste and fashion for much of the entire decade.
I have loved The Beatles for over 50 years now and am still amazed by all they produced. As a guitar player myself I am continually baffled with what they wrote. The recent film Get Back is a fine example of their genius, to write and record that album in, 30 days or so is just unbelievable. To write and make the 12 (13?) albums of such quality, in 7 years is just, well, beyond belief!
With The Beatles, it wasn't just the output of music, it was the sustained quality of this output over the best part of a decade, and the fact that they managed to stay original, and relevant and creative in producing music of quality for such a prolonged period of time.
Almost every other group of that era produced a few classics, but few consistently produced a series of albums where many - if not most (in the case of some of the later albums) of the tracks were excellent and several became classics.
My sister loved school. She was weird though. Probably still is, but I’ve not seen her in years.
I love Bitter Sweet symphony. Great song. Actually quite a few of The Verve songs were superb.