Guest Howard
GuestForum Replies Created
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You are a wise man Thomas. I’m not prepared to answer that question either. And the “Blackadder” series has to be one of my all time favourite comedy series.
The first series made in 1983, was called The Black Adder and was set in the fictional reign of “Richard IV”. The second series, Blackadder II (1986), was set during the reign of Elizabeth I. Blackadder the Third (1987) was set during the late 18th and early 19th centuries in the reign of George III, and Blackadder Goes Forth (1989) was set in 1917 in the trenches of the Great War.
In a 2001 poll by Channel 4 Edmund Blackadder was ranked third on their list of the 100 Greatest TV Characters. In the 2004 TV poll to find Britain’s Best Sitcom, Blackadder was voted the second-best British sitcom of all time, topped by ‘Only Fools and Horses’. It was also ranked as the 9th-best TV show of all time by Empire magazine.
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The Who released some excellent singles and were a great live band in the sixties. However, song writing and album wise, they don’t come close to the output and quality of the Stones. A comparison of their albums is a simple test. As for guitar playing, Keith Richards and Brian Jones were the more consummate rhythm/lead guitarists and The Who relied heavily on the lead bass playing style of John Entwistle, who was the real superstar, and the only member of the band to have formal music training.
In 2011, Entwistle was voted as the greatest bass guitarist of all time in a Rolling Stone magazine readers’ poll, and in its special “100 Greatest Bass Players” issue in 2017, Bass Player magazine named Entwistle at number seven.
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Was Paul McCartney hard on George Harrison?
This is another response from Ely Matawaran, Quezon City.
“Yes is the answer. While John Lennon would allow Harrison to weave guitar hooks into his compositions, McCartney would sometime remove Harrison’s solos on such songs such as “Another Girl”, “Penny Lane” and “Hello, Goodbye”.
During The Beatles years, when Harrison started to assert himself musically, he chafed at what he saw as McCartney’s dictatorial direction.
In The Beatles Anthology, he recalled:
“There came a time when Paul (McCartney) had fixed an idea in his brain as to how to record one of his songs…It was taken to the most ridiculous situation, where I’d open my guitar case and he’d say, ‘No, no, we’re not doing that yet.’…It got so there was very little thing to do, other than sit around and hear him going, ‘Fixing a hole…’ with Ringo doing the time.”
It had gotten to the point where Paul was telling him how to play his instrument and we all heard him say in the “Let it Be” film:
“I’ll play what you want me to play. Or I won’t play at all if you don’t want me to. Whatever it is that’ll please you, I’ll do it.”
And it had gotten to the point where he wanted to leave the biggest band in the world and move on. He had actually walked out of a recording session but was prevailed upon later.
In the post-Beatles years, in a Press Conference for his 1974 tour he said,
“I’d join a band with John Lennon any day, but I couldn’t join a band with Paul McCartney, but it’s nothing personal. It’s just from a musical point of view.”
Was it not really personal? Maybe. But I think if you’re an artist trying to express your art and somebody tried to suppress it, you’d have a personal grudge on that somebody. Artists are sensitive people.
And how about Paul, was the reason personal why he was hard on George whom he said he considered his little brother? Or was it because of this – a case of elder brother being hard on his younger sibling?
I don’t think so, he had not targeted him. For Paul, a driven and passionate man, was not only hard on Harrison but equally hard on everybody, including himself.
In the book “Still the Greatest; The Essential of the Beatles Solo Careers” it was written that throughout the Seventies, guitarists for Wings would quit after realizing that they would have almost zero input on what they played on or did not play, which is fine; McCartney’s a musical genius and should be able to hire those who will do what he wanted done.
And I think there it was, the operative word – genius.
They say that geniuses are hard to work with because they hear voices in their head and they’d rather listen to those voices than to people around them.
So McCartney could not help himself but be himself. He would not listen to Harrison, he himself told in a video interview that he rejected Harrison guitar work for ”Hey Jude’ because “that’s my song.”
But Harrison must have his say, for he was not a session guitarist being paid by the hour. He was a Beatle, and an emerging musical giant at that, especially in the late 60s.
And so there was the problem. As Harrison himself complained that there seemed to be no more room for a contribution from him because ‘Paul had fixed an idea in his brain how his songs must be recorded.’
Meanwhile, at that time, he personified what French Poet Victor Hugo described as an idea whose time has come. Something that must be given way for it’s hard to stop.
And this became obvious when right after The Beatles broke up, his solo recordings were the biggest hits and outselling Paul’s. Thank you.”
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I would seriously love to see Mona and Lisa do a cover of this song. They are the only ones who could put a positive spin on it, along with a humorous video! However, I’m just so worried they won’t have the time!
Monty Python – I’m (still) So Worried
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The Proclaimers – “I’m On My Way”
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Why did Paul McCartney sulk when John Lennon decided to do all the vocals on the song Come Together, and why did Paul then later secretly go into the studio by himself without the other band members’ knowledge and overdub his vocals?
”Short Answer: “Tit-For-Tat”. Detailed explanation:
By all accounts it was because John had wanted (desperately) to be asked to sing the lead vocal on “Oh Darling”.
John had been listening to Paul struggle with the vocal part and thought “I could do that in a couple of takes…why doesn’t he ask me to try singing it?”
Paul didn’t ask John to sing “Oh Darling”, preferring instead to chain-smoke for nearly a week straight to “roughen up” his voice and John took this as an affront…in fact he had been quoted as saying: “…if he (Paul) had asked me to sing on that (Oh Darling) I would have tried to keep the band together a little longer…”
Which (obviously) didn’t happen.
It was sort of Paul’s way of saying: “I can do a John Lennon vocal…I don’t need John to do this for me.”
A hurt Lennon responded by doing a (very credible…almost uncanny, really) background vocal to “Come Together” that really, really sounds like Paul is singing on it…“I can do a Paul McCartney vocal…I don’t need Paul.”
Yet another reason why this was becoming an untenable situation for all involved.
For all those who really believe the group didn’t need to disband, it’s details like this (and having to live with them day-in and day-out for years on end) that broke up The Beatles…not money, managers or women. All of whom were just convenient excuses for four man-children with limited communication skills who had outgrown the need for each others input and wouldn’t accept each other’s criticisms…and wouldn’t talk things out.”
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This may not be directly related to the Stones or Beatles but I thought it worthwhile throwing it into the mix, even though some of you may not be impressed with this dude’s guitar playing!
Classic Composers Guitar Battle – Beethoven VS Bach Vs Mozart Vs Vivaldi
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What did The Rolling Stones think of The Beatles?
This is a response from Ely Matawaran, Quezon City.
“Sir Paul McCartney told the Radio Times that The Rolling Stones envied The Beatles singing prowess.
Sir Paul said:
“The four of us (Beatles) were unusual.
“I talked to Keith Richards recently…well, a couple of years ago, and his take on it was: ‘Man, you were lucky, you guys, you had four lead singers,’ whereas The Rolling Stones only had one.
“I could sing, John could sing, George could sing and Ringo did numbers that he could sing. So it wasn’t just a front man and a back-up band.
“We were an entity. Mick used to call us ‘The Four-headed Monster’.”
In the 2013 book Beatles Vs Rolling Stone by John McMillian, Mick Jagger admitted they were outshone by The Beatles during the 60s.
“That’s us, the second best in the land”, said Jagger.
According to the book, Mick Jagger was shocked by the amount of hysteria surrounding The Beatles in the U.S. and wasn’t jealous of how trapped they felt because of their fans.
“I don’t envy those Beatles”, declared Jagger.
The Beatles had to endure constant bedlam because of their popularity including fears of assassination, riots and causing scandal.
Meanwhile, the Rolling Stones on the other hand enjoyed much higher level of freedom as they toured America and the world in the shadow of Beatlemania.
Few knew that Mick Jagger was in the audience when The Beatles played in front of then record audience of 55,600 people at Shea Stadium, Flushing, Queens in 1965.
And his reaction: that of fear!
He was scared of the level of fame the Beatles had achieved.
And as The Beatles became more creatively ambitious in the mid-60s, they started functioning a bit like generational pied pipers, inspiring the jealous admiration of their peers as well as legion of imitators.
As for the Rolling Stones, Mick was quoted as saying, “We have to be better because we’re only number two.”
Thank you.“
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I wonder if Mona and Lisa have ever had a holiday in Scotland. Maybe it’s time they brushed up on their Scottish accents.
The Proclaimers – Sunshine on Leith
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Bob Dylan – Jokerman
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John Cleese & Michael Palin, “Life of Brian” – 1979 Debate (1/4)
This is quite long and in four parts but well worth the effort if you have the time!
By the way, Paul Jones was the original front man for the 1960’s English band, Manfred Mann. “Doo Wah Diddy”!
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Not The Nine O’’Clock News – American Election Candidate
Ah! Think Pink, think Zoot! That was the promo for Australis’s pop group Zoot, way back in 1968.
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Mona and Lisa would know this one well. Inspiration for their ‘Orange’ album title!
A Clockwork Orange
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THE ID, FEATURING JEFF ST JOHN – “Big Time Operator”
St John was born Jeffrey Leo Newton on 22 April 1946, in Newtown, Sydney and attended Cleveland Street Boys High School in Surry Hills, New South Wales. He was born with spina bifida and spent much of his life in a wheelchair, after an operation failed to rectify his disability.
He died in the morning of 6 March 2018.
“I started off a newsboy on a paper
For a time I worked an elevator
But all the time I knew that later
I would be a higher rater
Finally, a big time operatorFor a while I drove an excavator
(yes I did)
Then I became a wine and brandy waiter
A builder, then a decorator
Later on, an estimator
I`m gonna be a big time operator(Oh ya got to believe in me, I got ambition,Yeah)
I took a job as an airline navigator
Then I became a crime investigator
(yes I did)
For a time, a commentator
Then I was administrator
I`m gonna be a big time operator
(yeah yeah yeah yeah)”
