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Dreaming The Beatles
Rob Sheffield
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"In his mansion, Brian Epstein kept Spanish servants, none of whom could speak English. Let that be a lesson to us all in discretion." (Lou Reed)
John Lennon: "None of us would have made it alone, bc Paul wasn't quite strong enough, I ddn't have enough girl appeal, George was too quiet and Ringo was just the drummer. But we thought everyone would be abble to dig at least one of us, and that's the way it turned out."
Why did they succeed? Why are kids still singing the songs long after the Beatles themselves went extinct? Can't be simply right place at the right time, bc the era didn't really produce any others. Why did they have the longevity? 1 was best selling album of 2000 and 2001, even though most people already owned at least 2 copies of all the songs.
Paul: "There they all were in America, getting trained for adulthood with their indisputable principle of life - short hair equals men, long hair equals women. Well we got rid of that small convention for them."
Beatles invented most of what rock stars do - writing your own songs, drugs, long hair, going to India, having a guru, round glasses, solo careers and stroppy girlfriends. They also invented things nobody/i> copied, like two of them quitting the Beatles to start bands with their wives.
Beatles loved the American girl groups - Paul: "We sang the Shirelles' 'Soldier Boy', which is a girl's song. It never occurred to us. And we sang 'Boys', another Shirelles' number. It was so innocent. We never thought, why are we singing about boys? We just loved the songs so much that what it said was irrelevant, it was just the sound, the feeling." That was osmething else they did by themselves. You'd never hear the Stones, or even Gerry and the Pacemeakers, singing Soldier Boy.
Ringo did a Pizza Hut ad 1995 where he says he'd love to get the Beatles back together, "I've just got to get the other lads to agree." Then he's joined by 3 of the Monkees, Micky, Peter and Davy, who help themselves to slices of his pizza, and Ringo looks at camera and shrugs "Wrong lads."
"Ticket to Ride". As Richard Pryor said: "I don't so much mind them leaving, but they hav to tell you why."
George on wedding day to Patti Boyd with huge shit-eating grin on his face This is why you learn to play the guitar. This is why you practice all those chords. She was only one of Beatle first wives who wasn't pregnant on wedding day, and of course the only one to snag another rock star. She turned Eric Clapton from a pious little blues scholar into a frothing Layla desperado, who then wrote sedate songs for her like 'Wonderful Tonight'.(When she and Clapton married, George, Paul and Ringo played at wedding - John rang up to complain about not being invited) Her older sister Jenny married Mick Fleetwood, while her younger sister Paula had a fling with Clapton before marrying Bobby Whitelock of the Dominoes.
Charles Manson never ever killed anyone, and wasn't even there when anyone was killed, but forever made infamous by Helter Skelter. Charlie remains notorious, while the actual killers became footnotes.
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