Sunday, 30 June 2013


That's Entertainment : John, Paul, George and Ringo


Friction is what keeps things interesting...  

I live in a split home.  You see, when Lee and my fathers were growing up, it was either The Beatles or The Rolling Stones.  Lee grew up in a Rolling Stones home; I grew up in a Beatles home.  

Put on the Beatles Red or Blue best ofs, and I'm pretty sure I could sing most of them.  From the mop top I Wanna Hold Your Hand to the psychedllia of Sgt Pepper's...to the dsyfunctional disintegration of  Abbey Road.   They are a blue print of my musical life.  Alice Cooper says that modern bands forget to listen to the Beatles - for mine, respect to the DNA of pop music must be paid to the Beatles.  Anyway...we're not here to talk about The Beatles as a band. 

So aside from the Beatles / Stones divide, and not that I knew it at the time, there was an even greater divide: a McCartney home, or a Lennon home.

My home, was smack bang in the Lennon camp.  Don't know why.  It's not something I've ever asked.  Maybe I will sit my dad down on Sunday and ask him why he preferred Lennon.  It's not like we didn't listen to the Beatles...it's just he didn't have any McCartney tapes.  

I grew up with a cassette tape of his Lennon's greatest hits.  And there were quite a few of them.  Genuine, bona fide classics.

So here are my fave John Lennon solo tracks, each a breath of fresh air every time I listen.

Imagine  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLgYAHHkPFs   [ close to, if not, the greatest song of all time to many ]

Just Like Starting Over  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWWbu_RSh7Q



Nobody Loves You When You're Down And Out  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G82q8Yds0hA


Oh Yoko  





But then I rebelled, because in the 1980's, Paul McCartney was still alive, he was still a massive pop act and he had heaps of songs, which now are considered way naff.  I worked my way backwards too to his time as a solo artist and in his highly successful band Wings.  It's sad today because I think more people think of Paul McCartney being a pot head vegan whose 2nd wife went batty and unfairly say that John is the better artist because he died.   People in the music press like to get all misty eyed and revisionist, forgetting Paul McCartney was a massive, MASSIVE act in the 1980's and still in to the 1990's and probably still today in the markets outside of the US and UK.

Personally, I don't buy in to it.  Press is a silly pop song with silly lyrics but is a sugar hit I need from time to time, as is the unabashed cheesiness of No More Lonely Nights.  

So now, with so many people listening in, here's my fave Paul McCartney songs:


Band on the Run  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7D65IomNYY   [ quite possibly one of the greatest songs of all time ]


Silly Little Love Songs  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_9QooYDYtU




Say Say Say [with Michael Jackson]  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLEhh_XpJ-0






But you know what...there's a third house down the street.  

And in 1987/88, a man by the name of George Harrison released a solo album that was mucho mega big.  I didn't know until then he was also a Beatle.  These days, the revisionist set say he's better than both Paul and John.  Maybe.  I won't buy in to it.  I'm ignorant to much of his work, and I'm working on listening to more of his gear but I have read a lot about him and he seems like the wickedly dry, humourous kind of bloke I could have a laugh with.  





Shanghai Surprise [with Vicki Brown (George Harrison produced this Madonna and Sean Penn film of the same name ] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPU2eQ4AT4A



Handle Me With Care (with Travelling Wilburys)  [originally to be a B-side; the record company refused to throw it away as a B-side and the rest is history ]   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8s9dmuAKvU

And of course there is what some might disparagingly call 'the outhouse'... Ringo Starr.  I love him.  I think he is cool.  Most people think he's a crap drummer.  I just think he is cool.  And a good drummer.  He has a distinctive playing and singing sound, and he influenced the way drums are set up and played, including his grip.  Ringo Starr is not to be flippantly disregarded.  And he's released some pretty cool little pop tracks too.  So I'll go all revisionist and say that Ringo is actually the best solo Beatle of them all.  Choke on that NME and MOJO.  LOL.







It's All Down To Goodnight Vienna  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcv7_QCJzkw

 
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