Re: More lyrical sparring

["Mark R. Leaman" <mleaman@sccoast.net>]

> Why no new album? Well, writing has to get harder with age

Steve:

Yet I don't see anyone telling Stephen King to stop writing novels because
it's harder or he's too old or he's done it before or he can't top his
earlier stuff.

 > Just because you are financially succesful doesn't mean that there is
> nothing left in the world that troubles you.

Rich:

In fact, it just brings up a whole new set of problems.

> predict it would be much angrier.  IRON MAN would be the interesting album
> to speculate about, though.  Would recording by The Who have saved it?

Keets:

No.

> Pete did very well with TOMMY by teaming with someone who knew the ropes,
> but Roger and John didn't like the result.

And they weren't the only ones.

>I'm a big Who and Beatle fan..BUT for you to say that The Beatles were
>writing for entertainment is in my judgement..... INCORRECT.

Deni:

OK, I'll put you under the same standard I did Keets: show me the money
(proof, that is). Sure, Lennon took some political and social shots later on
in their career (almost at the end, really). McCartney never did. Neither
wrote any lyrics as socially significant as what Dylan was doing before The
Beatles recorded note one. And when the Dylan influence affected the
songwriting ("Here I stand/Head in hand/Turn my face to the wall/If she's
gone/I can't go on...") it wasn't very sigificant...just a love song.
I'm not saying they didn't consciously try to take music forward, but it's
still entertainment from bowing in the suits after each song performance to
recording Abbey Road as a career ender.

> That's the purpose of pop music, isn't it?  As opposed to say, rock (using
> Mark's definition) or rap, that are more socially conscious?

Keets:

I don't know that Rock itself is necessarily more socially conscious.
Depends on the songwriter.

> Let's not confuse the fact that there were two very distinct
> groups called TheBeaTles, IMO, and Lennon fronted the
> Rock band version, while Macca fronted the PoP band
> version.

AEB:

I might argue that it was two facets of the same band. McCartney did record
I'm Down and Long Tall Sally (for two), as raunchy as anything Lennon
recorded until Revolution (or was it Me And My Monkey). John did record
Julia.

> Lennon was raging on with thought provoking Rock,

All AFTER The Who set the Rock standard, it should be noted. And while we
kn0w Townshend was trying to (and succeeding at) define the mindset of his
audience, we cannot really use that same argument about I Am The Walrus
unless The Beatles had some Arctic fanclub I'm not aware of.

> All on different side of the same 45 rpm single.

But was that not free association, as opposed to definite phrases? "Yellow
matter custard is visual, and it'll sound strange when they're
tripping...let's use that."


"It's so much easier to quit on somebody than to remediate."
        George "I'm a magician; I made the surplus disappear" Bush


               Cheers                 ML