Friday, February 10, 2006

New rankings out

Sorry about the continued Beatles talk.  I only have 200 pages to go in the book, and then I’ll be over them for awhile maybe.

But anyway, until last night, my favorite Beatles records went like this:

  1. Abbey Road

  2. Rubber Soul

  3. Revolver

However, after reading about this era and then a close listen, the order is now:

  1. Abbey Road

  2. Revolver

  3. Rubber Soul

The recurring motif is still how John is such a complete arse to people, but his song-writing is waking up, too.  He comes across as a terribly lonely man, in a marriage that he doesn’t enjoy, and a little jealous of Paul’s freedom and, well, talent.  

It’s funny how when I’m reading a book that book becomes this lens for how I take in the world.  When I was doing Gatsby last semester, I was seeing “Gatsby-figures” everywhere I looked.  “He is such a Gatsby,” I would say to myself, or sometimes Cath.  Or: “Total Daisy.”

This is happening somewhat with the Beatles bio.  Mainly, I’m seeing the upcoming Belle & Sebastian tour as my equivalent to the first Beatles tour of the US.  Sure, they’ve been here a few times before and I’ve seen them once before, but they’re charging lots for tickets now, and have a decent headlining act and, according to Tito, are even being advertised in Best Buy circulars.  I don’t see them breaking big, but at least I can pretend that there is some kind of “mania” attached to a band I like for once.

What is so funny about the Beatles tours to me is that these guys played, like, 30 minutes, tops.  That was their set.  Kids would scream, no one could hear them play, and then they’d be done.  So, even people who can claim to have seen the Beatles can only claim to have experienced 30 minutes more of a brush with greatness than any of us can.

2 comments:

Tito said...

Jesus man, how long is this book?!

OK, so John is a wanker. But I'll still take "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night" over "The Girl is Mine" any day.

Mr. Hill said...

It's 850 pages of beatlemania!! What was I thinking?

It could be written better, but overall, it's nice as a one-stop shopping option for filling up on their history. I'm gonna be so full of fun facts, it'll be awesome.