I’ve come to this realization that I’m not in the Pitchfork Generation. I love talking about and listening to whatever bands might come my way, but there is no way I can keep up with the maelstrom of young bands anymore. I love to write and I love music, but there is just too much going on.
One of the things I stumbled on many years back that I keep on going back to from time to time is the radio show Breakfast with the Beatles. It plays on KLOS in the Los Angeles area and on Sirius radio elsewhere. It’s not just a rehash of Beatles hits that you hear anyway on classic rock radio. Host Chris Carter (who was a founding member of 80’s rock band Dramarama) plays outtakes, solo material, re-masters, deep cuts, and anything else except for straight radio cuts.
Back in my punk and metal years, I hated the Beatles. Their earlier stuff seemed like carbon copy pop songs- super tight arrangements, two to three minute song lengths, flawless vocal harmonies, and seemingly mindless songs. I liked their later stuff better, but not much. It seemed like psychedelic noodling to me. I preferred at first the aurally grandiose sounds of Queen and the mythical thump of Led Zeppelin to the overly cute and perfect three minute pop songs of the Beatles, or the later balls-out aggression of Black Flag to what I saw as the silly nuances of Sgt. Pepper. I didn’t realize that although the Beatles didn’t perhaps invent those perfect harmonies and melodies, they sure as hell perfected them. I also didn’t realize that the sill absurdist noodling, they did largely invent, and countless others would spend the next forty years trying to copy.
It wasn’t until I began to appreciate more modern songwriters and bands like Elvis Costello and The Replacements. Eventually you got the feeling of the tremendous debt they owed the Beatles, which they would acknowledge themselves. They struggled, even in their best work to come close to the perfection of the Beatles, and this is no knock on them. It is more a testament to the genius of the Beatles.
This comes to mind for one reason that it is the fortieth anniversary of Woodstock. That festival was the culmination of a musical revolution that had been brewing for four years. While the Beatles weren’t there, having given up live performance at the time, they still had an indelible mark on that festival.
The beauty of a show like Breakfast with the Beatles gives one some hope for terrestrial radio. It flies in the face of radio convention. It is in direct contradiction to the overly formatted, killed with commercials, flavor-of-the-month radio that is popular these days. It is a fine history lesson I get in the car on my way to work on Sunday morning, and has me showing up to work with a smile on my face.
One of the things I stumbled on many years back that I keep on going back to from time to time is the radio show Breakfast with the Beatles. It plays on KLOS in the Los Angeles area and on Sirius radio elsewhere. It’s not just a rehash of Beatles hits that you hear anyway on classic rock radio. Host Chris Carter (who was a founding member of 80’s rock band Dramarama) plays outtakes, solo material, re-masters, deep cuts, and anything else except for straight radio cuts.
Back in my punk and metal years, I hated the Beatles. Their earlier stuff seemed like carbon copy pop songs- super tight arrangements, two to three minute song lengths, flawless vocal harmonies, and seemingly mindless songs. I liked their later stuff better, but not much. It seemed like psychedelic noodling to me. I preferred at first the aurally grandiose sounds of Queen and the mythical thump of Led Zeppelin to the overly cute and perfect three minute pop songs of the Beatles, or the later balls-out aggression of Black Flag to what I saw as the silly nuances of Sgt. Pepper. I didn’t realize that although the Beatles didn’t perhaps invent those perfect harmonies and melodies, they sure as hell perfected them. I also didn’t realize that the sill absurdist noodling, they did largely invent, and countless others would spend the next forty years trying to copy.
It wasn’t until I began to appreciate more modern songwriters and bands like Elvis Costello and The Replacements. Eventually you got the feeling of the tremendous debt they owed the Beatles, which they would acknowledge themselves. They struggled, even in their best work to come close to the perfection of the Beatles, and this is no knock on them. It is more a testament to the genius of the Beatles.
This comes to mind for one reason that it is the fortieth anniversary of Woodstock. That festival was the culmination of a musical revolution that had been brewing for four years. While the Beatles weren’t there, having given up live performance at the time, they still had an indelible mark on that festival.
The beauty of a show like Breakfast with the Beatles gives one some hope for terrestrial radio. It flies in the face of radio convention. It is in direct contradiction to the overly formatted, killed with commercials, flavor-of-the-month radio that is popular these days. It is a fine history lesson I get in the car on my way to work on Sunday morning, and has me showing up to work with a smile on my face.
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