As people, they are were funny/geniuses/talented/charismatic/serious/seemingly down to Earth/entertaining/self-deprecating/vain/spiritual/foolish/workhorses
Their music is thrilling/sad/light/dark/pop/avant-garde/classic/of the moment/jazz/haunting/workmanlike/rock n roll/psychedelic/uplifting
They had real musicians like McCartney (John Lennon was once asked if Ringo was the best drummer in rock and roll. Lennon replied that Ringo wasn't even the best drummer on the Beatles), and a self-described "primal mover" like John Lennon.
And there were four of them, you had four distinct personalities to choose your own favorite; as Lennon once said:
"Conquering America was the best thing...we realized we could make it because there was four of us. None of us could have made it on our own because Paul wasn't strong enough, I didn't have enough girl appeal, George was too quiet, and Ringo was a drummer..."
And their story is the best soap opera ever - endless hours in strip clubs honing a craft that would one day look as lilting, effortless genius, perfect timing coming to America, changing an entire culture and decade, a bitter break-up that still crushes people. And for good measure, they had a guy get shot dead.
Just like Mickey Mantle's life, there isn't an emotion that doesn't fit into them as people, music or story; there is not a moment that is not interesting. Awesome.
"There's a woman in the United States who predicted the plane we were traveling on would crash. Now, a lot of people would like to think we were scared into saying a prayer. What we did actually--we drank." - Ringo Starr, 1966
Fucking christ. I just spent 15 minutes yammering about something that has been yammered about for almost 50 years. What more can you say about the Beatles? Nothing, until the next time I say something I guess.
3 comments:
WTF? Did Lennon have it in for Ringo.
I forgot this punctuation on previous post - ?
I wasn't telling you Lennon had it in for Ringo, I was asking in kind of a humorous way after reading both quotes. But now that I had to explain that I'd say my comments today on Xmastime have been big fat failures.
*sniff*
hahaha!!
"my comments today on Xmastime have been big fat failures."
that made my night!! :)
there are no failures in the Xmas comments section. on on Xmastime itself.
(obviously he loved Ringo very much but was kinda famous for just kind of popping off at the mouth whenever he wanted to...one of his last interviews was basically going through every Beatles song and saying they all sucked. an all the way up or all the way down kinda guy. which makes for a great interview)
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