Illustration / Magic what they do
Back before The Beatles became the iconic poster-group of the free-spirited generation, they had a catchphrase that they would rally around as they struggled from club to club on the tough German circuit. This was in the early 1960s, before their star had risen and well before Sgt Pepper’s was even a twinkle in their eyes. Paul McCartney hadn’t written Yesterday [original lyrics? 'Scrambled eggs, oh my baby how I love your legs'. True story], Lennon hadn’t written Revolution, and Harrison hadn’t discovered the sitar. What a shame he eventually did. But anyway, there they were, four scruffy English lads, with a head full of ideas and a palm full of destiny. ‘Where are we going boys?’, John Lennon would yell in his wicked scouse accent. ‘To the toppermost of the poppermost!’, the others would reply. And so they did; to musical heights not even a composite band featuring Paul Weller, Elvis Costello and the drummer out of the Mock Turtles could ever aspire to. Although it was rooted in the hip swiveling rock ‘n’ roll of predecessors such as Chuck Berry and Little Richard, The Beatles sound was a catalytic cannon of punchy hooks and rhythms; sweet melodic gifts from restless places. Which is why I’m lying here now, on a day when the cloud hangs low over New York and the faintest gust of wind cools my weary mind, listening to Abbey Road and thinking of Mother England. That, and whether woodchucks ever need dental work. [illustration by Linn Olofsdotter]
Tagged: colourful illustrations
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Many years ago, when my hair was longer and my clothes were shabbier, I played guitar in a Sydney-based rock band. We never come to anything more than a few years worth of gigs and a deeply closeted aspiration to take the radio charts by storm. We never did. A lack of talent intervened, but it was damn fun while it lasted. Anyway, at one point during this debauched period of my life, I had a friend who was the frontman for the exotically named, Blue Apples of The Moon. He had an unusually resonant baritone and a penchant for writing epic music. One day he handed me a demo cassette with a batch of his new songs on it. I took it to work with me the next day, whacked it into my Sony Walkman, and immediately swooned amongst the lulling tones and fretfully beautiful lyrics of this Leonard Cohen classic. I was gobsmacked. Totally mesmerised. And having never heard it before, I presumed that my friend — this humble frontman of a bizarrely named rock band — had just penned the greatest song of our generation. For about eight minutes and seventeen seconds, I was convinced he was genius. That was until one of my workmates pointed out that it was actually a Leonard Cohen masterpiece, one of many. It turns out that my friend’s demos were on the other side of the cassette. And they were pretty average. But hell, anything would be after this unholy precedent.
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YOU'RE SAYING (4)
Zolton said | 5 January, 2007
Well, the Beatles do have their place. If it wasn’t for them, they’d be no Coldplay, no Doves, no Travis, no Robbie Williams … ok, we could do without the last one. But you know, that were kinda influencial. And no I wasn’t there. But I wasn’t at the dawn of civilisation either but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate it. [aherm] ‘God save our gracious Queen …’
Russ H said | 2 June, 2008
The Beatles were the greatest musical group that ever was, and ever will be.
Spanish Flew said | 3 October, 2008
The white lines on the roads are the enamal of thousands of woodchucks doing their own dental work. There were many beautiful songs before and thereafter, but the Beatles marks a line in the roaring freeway flux of music. We’ll never know how far those beatleic songs travel to reach Earth, but it set off an epidemic of pandemic proportions. Many have analyzed what lies between the lyrics and melodies, but they truely miss the bullseyes and get hung up on the horns. Dashing to conclusions that what was then done as irrelevant is a demonstration of condemnation of one’s mutated sterile thoughts. Many over the years have tried immitation, but they missed the essentials, having a short wave radio called an open mind. I was there and seen the affect they had on the people around me. For some it was too much, as it caused them to overloaded their mental health and surrender their common sense for alternate unreasoning whose effects are with us today. They were were just a very talented band with the right associations and lucky breaks. For a short golden age, many had real fun.
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Bob said | 4 January, 2007
Guys, guys guys, that was a really sad read for this time of year. I’m afraid in your timewarp you’ve failed to notice that 2007 has just been born. Yes, I’ll say it again - it’s 2007 , not 1967 so could we please have more of a contemporary read, & a celebration of the coming times, not the passing ones. If you are going to go historical, at least with a modern twist. Mother England - what is this? Beatles? Get over it - you weren’t even there!