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Friday, November 30, 2001
So, George Harrison died. Bummer. I think he may have actually been my favorite Beatle. The Beatles were a band in The Before Times, in The Long-Long Ago. Did they change the world? I don't know about that. But they did change pop music.
Paul Harvey claimed today that The Beatles were part of his generation. Maybe in some bizarro-world, Mr. Harvey. Some bizarro-world where my grandparents listened to the Lads from Liverpool while my parents complained about "Those lousy longhairs" and "Adults these days. Why, in the days we're going to experience..." A Beatle dies, and the world mourns. A Ramone dies, and it's in the entertainment pages. "A what?" you may be asking. I hope not. If you have to ask what a Ramone is, you really need to pirate yourself some decent music. The Ramones helped change music at least as much as The Beatles. The Beatles, however, were cuter. Joey Ramone was an ugly, ugly man. Didn't stop him from kicking ass, however. The Ramones brought rocknroll back to the people. They took it away from hacks like The Eagles. They knew that the stuff coming out of the radio in 1976 wasn't rocknroll. It may have been called rock and roll, but it wasn't rocknroll. What was it? Overproduced, unemotional shit. Pure and simple. The Ramones remembered who The Crystals and The Ronettes were. They knew who Phil Spector was. They could care less about Alan O'Day or Cashman & West. Seals & Crofts? What the fuck ever. They used to rock. Back when they were in The Champs and drank Tequila. But then they got all wussy. The Ramones brought back 3-chord rocknroll. Without irony. Without winking. They did it because they loved it, and missed it. The Beatles did the same thing. They heard what the black artists in America were doing, and they liked it. They borrowed it. And they made some great pop songs along the way. Sometimes they did some rocknroll, but it was mostly pop. Good pop, too. Not quite as good as The Beach Boys, when Brian stopped touring and just wrote, but good nonetheless. So, George is dead. The world is less cool now. Comments by: YACCS |