What the critics wrote about the Beatles in 1964

[malthaussen]

106. Well, for one thing...

... I'm more into bebop than cool jazz, and while Miles straddles both classifications, I think it's safe to say he's more "cool" than bop.

But accessibility is also relevant in that Miles was always pretty famous for kind of an aloof attitude while the Beatles were equally famous for being Everyman. Of course, that has nothing to do with the music, but it can affect the way the musician is regarded.

As for the "music of your youth" thing, well... I cultivated a love of jazz after being a devout Top 40 listener and also digging pretty deeply into the classical wax. You could say the Top 40 came naturally and the rest I had to work at. I appreciate each genre in different ways and in different moods. I'm listening to Hamp right now, but an hour ago I was posting links to the Troggs.

The phrase "I've outgrown them" can come off as a bit elitist, or even snobbish. As if to say, that pop music stuff is okay for you kids (or shall we say, you of less sophisticated tastes), but it isn't really for grownups. I disagree. "Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't." I never met a gourmet meal I didn't like, but I am equally happy with hamburger. It is an aesthetic thing, because I do believe we should cultivate our sense of beauty and multiply it, not restrict it, or even "pass on" to different stages and different phases.

And how would you classify a musician such as Rory Gallagher, whom I belatedly discovered a couple of years ago and can't get enough of? Blues, rock, virtuoso musicianship -- and he put on one hell of a show. But he was never Top 40 material. Much as with a great jazz musician, you can listen to ten versions of the same song and no two will be the same. But they will all rock you.

I think too, that there is a difference of "intent" between jazz and pop (to say nothing of other genres). While jazz is a recorded genre, its true greatness is in live performance, when the conditions and crowd and musicians all can combine to create magic. Whereas pop music, though of course it is also performed live, is really intended as a mass-market recorded product. I've always seen it as kind of the difference between theatre and cinema. And while there are certainly theatre snobs who think that the celluloid product is inferior and unsophisticated... well, different strokes for different folks. But best of all, surely, would be different strokes at different times for the same folk?

-- Mal