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Author Topic: Anyone have any Unpopular Opinion about The Beatles?  (Read 2419 times)

Greg

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Anyone have any Unpopular Opinion about The Beatles?
« on: November 04, 2015, 08:08:45 pm »

I prob have a few.  I'm not looking for criticisms of my unpopular opinions....although that would be totally fine. 
I really would like to know if you have any.

My main one is that Paul has become what I had hoped he wouldn't.  Elvis.

He's not the cartoon that Elvis became, but close enough for me.

...Please...I know...you don't need to say it.  This is coming from a guy who loves the man.  I used to stay up just to see him on Midnight Special or whatever just to take a picture of the tv screen as he sang.  The guy was as important, more actually, than my ridiculous father.

Anyway...any unpopular opinions?

My other is my dislike for Glass Onion (that's just a matter of opinion though).   Another is that I'm glad they broke up in 70.  They will live on forever flawlessly in my eyes.
« Last Edit: November 04, 2015, 08:10:22 pm by Greg »
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Mervap

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Re: Anyone have any Unpopular Opinion about The Beatles?
« Reply #1 on: November 04, 2015, 08:38:03 pm »

Quote
Another is that I'm glad they broke up in 70.  They will live on forever flawlessly in my eyes.

I agree totally on this one....when it became clear that not all of the Lads wanted to be in the band anymore, they knocked it on the head, sparing us the "replacing John" or "replacing Paul" thing that would have cheapened their legacy. The painting was complete.
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If love is blind, how will it ever find a way?

2 of 3

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Re: Anyone have any Unpopular Opinion about The Beatles?
« Reply #2 on: November 04, 2015, 10:10:25 pm »

I heard a comedian say the other day while talking about Mozart, that at least he was lucky enough to die while he was still cool. Unlike Paul McCartney.

My opinion about Paul is that he keeps chasing being relevant by working with people he shouldn't. I was never thrilled about his MJ collaborations. Not that they were bad...they just weren't...err...Beatley. Now it's Kanye...or was it Jay Zed? (hey...that's the Canadian pronunciation)  ;D The only people who seem to be cool are the ones that don't care what anybody else thinks. Probably all an illusion. ;)
I don't blame him for trying of course. But you know...John had Elton and Bowie...George had Dylan and Petty and Orbison.  Paul should have stuck with Costello. At least the tunes weren't throwaways. Sure they weren't hits...but..you know. :o

I'm not glad they broke up in 1970 at all. They still had lots of great songs in them, but nobody to tell them that some of it was rubbish. Even breaking up on friendly terms would have been better. At least we'd get some guest appearances over the years.
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kylenz

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Re: Anyone have any Unpopular Opinion about The Beatles?
« Reply #3 on: November 05, 2015, 05:27:13 am »

For me, the most unpopular opinion I would have, is of John Lennon as a person.

As a musician and songwriter, he is definitely up there with the greatest of all-time of course. But he was not the peace-and-love person he was perceived to be. And I also feel he may have been responsible for Stu Sutcliffe's death via a kick to the head.

I love him as a Beatle, love his music, love the fire and energy he had inside.. but he also seems to have been a complicated man plagued by his own demons. And it seems that with the passing of time, all the stuff covered in the Goldman book becomes backed up with support from various quarters, including Stu's own sister.

As for Glass Onion, I love it - it rocks - I'm just wondering what in particular doesn't appeal - is it the self-referential lyrics? I find it a cool little quirk of Beatles songs - even Lady Madonna took the 'see how they run' line from I Am The Walrus and placed it in a completely different context. Another thing I like about Glass Onion is that little solo recorder part - great little touch there. All those bits and pieces made those songs so great.  :D
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Re: Anyone have any Unpopular Opinion about The Beatles?
« Reply #4 on: November 05, 2015, 09:05:29 am »

That's the thing though...they all had their issues. I'm more than a little impressed they made it through the 60's all in one piece. Can you imagine what that was like...the money..the fame...women throwing themselves at you 24/7...the drink..the drugs. Wow...I'd have lasted about 3 minutes. haha  ;D
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Greg

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Re: Anyone have any Unpopular Opinion about The Beatles?
« Reply #5 on: November 05, 2015, 11:09:16 am »

Quickly...

Yes it's the self-referential lyrics?  I agree that the song is very great vocally, melodically and musically.  Those lyrics kill me.  Kind of like the fact that I don't like eggs.  I just don't like them...to a high-level degree.

John...yep.  That is a tough one to reconcile.  I also do think that Stu's death may have haunted him.  I forgot which book besides Goldman's and the sister, but someone who was close to him in the 70's mentioned John talking about it.  Seaman or the astrologer Greene???  I know they are easy to want to discredit, but I'm not sure anyone has shown that either was ever lying.  Not sure on that one. 

If you think it was not good that they broke up I can dig that.  Maybe a few more albums would have been just as good as the previous ones.  That's a real possibility.

My whole Paul hangup is just weird.  If he were to go around small clubs doing acoustic gigs or something I'd think that was the greatest, but why would he do that?  And that would mean 99.5% of those who want to see him actually would get to. 
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Re: Anyone have any Unpopular Opinion about The Beatles?
« Reply #6 on: November 05, 2015, 12:02:35 pm »

Quote
If he were to go around small clubs doing acoustic gigs or something I'd think that was the greatest, but why would he do that?

I wonder if that College tour he did in the early seventies made him think...why bother. I wonder if John's death makes him leery of being that close to the public. It would be cool though. I was in the UK in the early 90's and walked by a pub with my sister in law and Howard Jones was in there playing. Sure, he hadn't had a hit in a while, but he was pretty huge for a while. I didn't get a chance to go unfortunately...that would have been great. How great would it be to just by chance see Paul in the same scenario.
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kylenz

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Re: Anyone have any Unpopular Opinion about The Beatles?
« Reply #7 on: November 05, 2015, 11:56:13 pm »

Yes, Nik Kershaw was playing at a pub in NZ a year or two ago and I wanted to see him, but circumstances beyond my control meant I wasn't able to be there. Such a shame - I love his acoustic versions of The Riddle, Don Quixote, Wouldn't It Be Good etc. And he was doing a wee acoustic tour. It would've been amazing!
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Keri

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Re: Anyone have any Unpopular Opinion about The Beatles?
« Reply #8 on: December 15, 2017, 03:47:18 am »

I'm replying to an old thread and it has that warning on it about starting a new thread, what do people think about that. I really like the idea of picking up a conversation again and prefer it to starting a new one, recycling ideas, interacting with the past, it seems good to me.

Regarding Paul, I'm fine with what he does, he's come to New Zealand though and I haven't gone to see him, partly because I don't like the idea of really big rock concerts. i think he could have done some things better, but he's actually had quite a broad range, with his classical works and Firemen. I'd like to see him do a large scale sort of Paul Prog work. With a big theme like his classical works, but include a variety of excellent pop rock playing, orchestral instrumentation and maybe electronic and maybe include some vocal harmony work, get some good non classical harmony singers.

But unpopular Beatles Opinions. I think Abbey Road is over rated. I find I want You is a waste of space. George's songs are great, Come Together is good, the side two suite is great. Octopus is OK the rest should have been replaced with some of the gems George had written.

I'm OK with them breaking up, but I would have liked them to got together every couple of years and make an album, without any partners hanging around. With a reasonable amount of co writing. It does seem like a pipe dream, but hey that's what dreams are for. I wouldn't care if the later albums weren't as good as their 60s stuff, it would have been interesting to see where they could go.
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Re: Anyone have any Unpopular Opinion about The Beatles?
« Reply #9 on: December 16, 2017, 09:04:57 pm »

Yeah, it must be the program software that warns of "old thread." I'm not sure why it matters.(must be a reason) ???

I've had a few problems with Abbey Road in the past too...though...I may have mellowed a bit.  Looking at their release dates, I've noticed they released ten albums between 1965-1970. Holy moly! I think I can give them a passing grade even if some of the tunes smelled a bit.  ;D
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