I’m gonna need to go back to that. I remember not being struck by it, but I know how acclaimed it is, so I think I need to give it a go, work out what I was missing.
Macca has stated in many interviews that he has never found writing songs the way it was with Lennon. Mentioned how they used to finish each others sentences when writing the lyrics and how things just used to fall into place. He does a good interview (on youtube) with Jarvis Cocker from LIPA which is actually in the building for his old grammar school. As for that get back series. It amazes me how much pratting about they did during all those days and talking about random nonsense. Dont know why but I expected them to be quite focused when writing and rehearsing, those sessions were anything but that.
Always amazes me that when bands are young and broke they spend a week making an album. Once they’re loaded and have loads of people indulging them it takes a year!
It depends on the band of course, but many young bands have that fire in their bellies from being on the dole, not having a pot to **** in etc. They sing their experience. Like Oasis. It's not the same when theyve made it and they run out of things to sing about that connects them to the common man (and woman) because often they're simply no longer part of that world. It's like Arctic Monkeys, singing about getting a cab to High Green via Hillsbrough. By album 6, they're taking private jets and singing about a hotel up in space. On the quick early output of bands, I'm not sure that's always the case. I'm sure Noel Gallagher (again) said he spent his youth writing Definitely Maybe in his head. When it came around to writing Morning Glory he thought, b0llocks I've got to write a follow up! And by Be Here Now he'd shovelled so much coke up his nose that you end up with the overblown guitar solos, the pomp and swagger, and you're into stadium rock territory. I still kinda like Be Here Now though The Beatles output was insane on their first 5 albums or whatever, but I do think that's rare and obviously won't ever be repeated.
Not a beatles fan as such. But I liked several they wrote covered by other artistes. Cocker- little help from my friends Carpenters- Ticket to ride. Please mr postman. Shirley Bassey-Fool on the hill
What I do know about Macca is that there wouldn't have been many of those last few albums, the rest were off doing other things, living the life of global superstars, he did the hard yards.
Yep. Double Fantasy was absolutely panned by NME and other music press at the time. He was murdered as it floundered in the Album charts and became a classic Go figure
For both consistency over a long period and no drop in quality once commercial success appeared, REM's career takes some beating. Their first ten albums - five on an indie label, then five on a major - are considered to be pretty much flawless. The final five albums aren't quite as consistent, but bar Around The Sun are still way better than what the majority if bands could ever get close to producing. And I include a lot of bands which I really like in that statement. 30 years, 15 albums of which 14 are mostly outstanding, and even the weaker ones would be described as "very good".
As a Beatles fan I always leaned towards the Lennon songs on their albums as they had a certain edge to them. Macca always had a softer, melodic nature. Through their solo careers I’m actually partial to Macca over Lennon. It’s not consistent but there’s some unbelievable gems scattered thoughout his 40+years post Beatles. I’m guessing but I would say if Lennon was still alive his output wouldn’t surpass Macca in terms of quality. It may have the odd peak moment though. The less angry he got the less impactful Lennon became. even on albums like Red Rose speedway there are great songs. And I’ve been fortunate to have worked on his music videos down the years. Band of The Run is fantastic. So is RAM. don’t get me wrong. Lennon had a great solo career but it’s clouded a little by it being tragically curtailed and evaluated differently.