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Re: all this nonsense about...



>Date: Thu, 04 Sep 1997 Rich Thomson wrote:

>Pete: "Oooh, that's a tough question.  Actually John and I were
>    listening to a stereo LP of the Beatles today where the backing
>    track comes out on one side and the voices come out on the other.
>    When you hear the Beatles without their voices, they're pretty
>    lousy."
>
>That about sums up my feelings on the Beatles as well.  Similar to
>other people on this list, the Beatles music has become stale and
>boring with age while The Who just gets better and more interesting.

 You can't hold Pete to that quote. He made it in 1965 or 1966, and I'm sure
that if you asked him about the Beatles NOW (or even a few months after that
statement), he'd give a completely different answer. Pete changes his
opinions, stories, and mind from week to week, and you're going to hold him
to a statement that he made over 25 years ago? I don't think so. You may
recall that in 1975 Pete did a very infamous interview with the New Music
Express (or perhaps it was Melody Maker) that was reprinted in the Sept &
Oct '75 issues of Creem Magazine in the U.S., and in that interview he
slagged off everyone from Mick Jagger to Jeff Beck to ELP to The Who. Some
years later in another interview, Pete reflected on that period of his life
and on that very interview. He went so far as to say that he had said some
nasty things about Jeff Beck that he really regretted, and he didn't really
know why he did it, other than the fact that it was his state of his mind at
the time. And I'm sure that Pete's statement that the Beatles were "lousey"
was a reflection of his state of mind at that time, probably trying to say
something controversial for the cameras.
 As for the Beatles music becoming "stale", I couldn't disagree more. Most
of the Beatles' music still sounds fresh and original, which is why it is
still popular, both to old fans and newer, younger fans who weren't even
born when the band split up. Stale music does NOT stay popular for over 30
years, nor do the bands who perform it. Judging by the still constant demand
for Beatles music (as reflected by sales of the Anthology series, released
30 years after the band broke up), it would seem to me that there are many
of us who still find their music fresh. *BUT*, that is no reflection on how
great The Who's music is too, so why argue the point?

                     Long Live Rock,

                           I.S.




                  Sacred cows make the best hamburger