I am a Beatles fan. I have been ever since my sophomore year in high school when my history teacher Mr. Sloekers took it upon himself to educate his students about the greatest and most influential band ever. The Beatles really were amazing. They were the first band to do everything with their music. They defined what rock is.
So I go to see this movie Across the Universe, right? It has Beatles music in it and it's about the 60's, what else can you ask for? The 60's was the beginning of all rock. So many amazing artists came from that era. Beatles, Bob Dylan, Otis Redding, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, The Doors, The Velvet Underground, The Mamas and the Papas, all the Motown artists... the list goes on. I wish I could have experienced it.
The movie was AMAZING. It told a story of a couple in New York City in the 1960's and their experience through the 60's revolution, Vietnam War, and the Psychedelic era. And it told it through Beatles songs. And yes, they were all Beatles songs. I love it because they even had a Janis Joplin character in the movie and she even performed Beatles songs, only, Janis Joplin style. It was so great.
Someone once tried to explain the 60's sound to me once. They played Enrique Inglesias' Hero for me. A modern song. A modern romantic song, about love. It's good, and I like that song. It has all the latest modern technology packed into it. And Mr. Inglesias is singing I will be your hero very nicely. Sounds nice. Then they played Otis Redding's Try a Little Tenderness. You just can't put into the words the power of the raw human voice. It's a rather simple song, musically. But Otis Redding seems to be able to accomplish with his voice ten times over what all the producers are trying to create these days artificially.... feeling.
That's what music is all about. Creating something that can affect people. It can be for good or bad, make you want to act, or it can just make you want to move. Music has the ability to reach to our deepest part of feeling... it can change you. That's why I love it so much. And that's what I want to create music for. To influence. For good. For all the good in the world. For what's left of the good in the world. Not to just shake that laffy taffy.
So anyways, even if you don't know much about the Beatles, go see the movie. It was the beginning of so much in music today.
(There is nudity in the movie, unfortunately. Sorry about that.)
Here's the trailer:
2 comments:
You have talked about this so much this week I am anxious to go see it - nudity and all! I have enjoyed the Beatles music you and Roxanne have been playing around the house lately.
btw - you are a good writer. you express yourself well.
Rachel baby! So groovy of you to include me as a cool link, man. Love your blog.
Standing in the school cafeteria lunch line in 2nd grade - a big day, our 1st time to be allowed to eat at the cafeteria. All the kids were talking about "the beatles". I said, "You mean there's a bunch of bugs in a jar that sing?" Everyone laughed. "No! They're a group! A band from England! They're so boss!"
(Well, see what you can remember from being 7 yrs old.) Funny thing about your poetic longing to have lived in my era; few of us rarely appreciate the moment we're in.
The flower power movement wasn't all that. Our parents flipped over the Beatle haircut, their tight pants & "fruit boots" as my dad referred to them. I never liked Janis Joplin's gravely screech-owl voice. Paisley was O.K., but the hippie generation meant a lot of arguing with people who were supposed to be all about love & peace. The 'Establishment' was out, individuality was in...Vietnam hung over our heads like a bloody, dead weight. Civil Rights riots, the race for space, Communist Russia and Woodstock frightened us; James Bond was a super hero & our music was a potent self-expression. Sounds a little like today, doesn't it?
Although in gym class, we did floor routines to The Fifth Dimension or Andy Williams crooning "Born Free" rather than any rock tunes.
Good times.
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