Диссертация (1098575), страница 48
Текст из файла (страница 48)
To start with theobvious, they were the greatest and most influential act of therock era, and introduced more innovations into popular musicthan any other rock band of the 20th century. Moreover, theywere among the few artists of any discipline that were simultaneously the best at what they did andthe most popular at what they did.
Relentlessly imaginative and experimental, the Beatles rabbedhold of the international mass consciousness in 1964 and never let go for the next six years, alwaysstaying ahead of the pack in terms of creativity but never losing their ability to communicate theirincreasingly sophisticated ideas to a mass audience.
Their supremacy as rock icons remainsunchallenged to this day, decades after their breakup in 1970.It's hard to convey the scope of the Beatles achievements in a mere paragraph or two. Theysynthesized all that was good about early rock & roll, and changed it into something original andeven more exciting. They established the prototype for the self-contained rock group that wroteand performed its own material.
As composers, their craft and melodic inventiveness were secondto none, and key to the evolution of rock from its blues/R&B-based forms into a style that was farmore eclectic, but equally visceral. As singers, both John Lennon and Paul McCartney were amongthe best and most expressive vocalists in rock; the group's harmonies were intricate andexhilarating. As performers, they were (at least until touring had ground them down) exciting andphotogenic; when they retreated into the studio, they were instrumental in pioneering advancedtechniques and multi-layered arrangements.
They were also the first British rock group to achieveworldwide prominence, launching a British Invasion that made rock truly an internationalphenomenon.Hamburg was the Beatles' baptism by fire. Playing grueling sessions for hours on end in one of themost notorious red-light districts in the world, the group was forced to expand its repertoire,tighten up its chops, and invest its show with enough manic energy to keep the rowdy crowdssatisfied. When they returned to Liverpool at the end of 1960, the band – formerly also-rans on theexploding Liverpudlian "beat" scene – were suddenly the most exciting act on the local circuit.They consolidated their following in 1961 with constant gigging in the Merseyside area, mostoften at the legendary Cavern Club, the incubator of the Mersey beat sound.Near the end of 1961, the Beatles' exploding local popularity caught the attention of local recordstore manager Brian Epstein, who was soon managing the band as well.
He used his contacts toswiftly acquire a January 1, 1962, audition at Decca Records that has been heavily bootlegged(some tracks were officially released in 1995). After weeks of deliberation, Decca turned themdown as did several other British labels. Epstein's perseverance was finally rewarded with anaudition for producer George Martin at Parlophone, an EMI subsidiary; Martin signed theBeatles in mid-1962.
By this time, Epstein was assiduously grooming his charges for nationalsuccess by influencing them to smarten up their appearance, dispensing with their leather jacketsand trousers in favor of tailored suits and ties.What the Beatles had done was take the best elements of the rock and pop they loved and makethem their own.
Since the Quarrymen days, they had been steeped in the classic early rockof Elvis, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Carl Perkins, and the Everly Brothers; they'd265also kept an ear open to the early-'60s sounds of Motown, Phil Spector, and the girl groups. Whatthey added was an unmatched songwriting savvy (inspired by Brill Building teams such as GerryGoffin and Carole King), a brash guitar-oriented attack, wildly enthusiastic vocals, and theembodiment of the youthful flair of their generation, ready to dispense with postwar austerity andclaim a culture of their own.
They were also unsurpassed in their eclecticism, willing to borrowfrom blues, popular standards, gospel, folk, or whatever seemed suitable for their musical vision.Just as crucially, the Beatles were never ones to stand still and milk formulas. All of theirsubsequent albums and singles would show remarkable artistic progression (though never at theexpense of a damn catchy tune).
Even on their second LP, With the Beatles (1963), it was evidentthat their talents as composers and instrumentalists were expanding furiously, as they devised evermore inventive melodies and harmonies, and boosted the fullness of their arrangements. "SheLoves You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" established the group not just as a popular music act,but as a phenomenon never before seen in the British entertainment business, as each single soldover a million copies in the U.K.
After some celebrated national TV appearances, Beatlemaniabroke out across the British Isles in late 1963, and the group generating screams and hysteria at allof their public appearances, musical or otherwise.Capitol, which had first refusal of the Beatles' recordings in the United States, had declined to issuethe group's first few singles, which ended up appearing on relatively small American independents.Capitol took up its option on "I Want to Hold Your Hand," which stormed to the top of the U.S.charts within weeks of its release on December 26, 1963.
The Beatles' television appearances onThe Ed Sullivan Show in February of 1964 launched Beatlemania (and the entire British Invasion)on an even bigger scale than it had reached in Britain. In the first week of April 1964, theBeatles had the Top Five best-selling singles in the U.S.; they also had the first two slots on thealbum charts, as well as other entries throughout the Billboard Top 100. No one had everdominated the market for popular music so heavily; it's doubtful that anyone ever will again.The Beatles themselves would continue to reach number one with most of their singles and albumsuntil their 1970 breakup.`Hard as it may be to believe today, the Beatles were often dismissed by cultural commentators ofthe time as nothing more than a fad that would vanish within months as the novelty wore off.
Thegroup ensured this wouldn't happen by making A Hard Day's Night in early 1964, a cinéma véritéstyle motion picture comedy/musical that cemented their image as "the Fab Four": happy-go-lucky,individualistic, cheeky, funny lads with nonstop energy. The soundtrack was also a triumph,consisting entirely of Lennon-McCartney tunes, including such standards as the title tune, "And ILove Her," "If I Fell," "Can't Buy Me Love," and "Things We Said Today." But when at the top oftheir game, the group was continuing to push forward. "I Feel Fine" had feedback and brilliantguitar leads; "Ticket to Ride" showed the band beginning to incorporate the ringing, metallic,circular guitar lines that would be appropriated by bands like the Byrds; "Help!" was their firstburst of confessional lyricism; "Yesterday" employed a string quartet.
John Lennon in particularwas beginning to exhibit a Dylanesque influence in his songwriting on such folky, downbeatnumbers as "I'm a Loser" and "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away." And tracks like "I Don'tWant to Spoil the Party" and "I've Just Seen a Face" had a strong country flavor.The Beatles did use their unaccustomed peace in India to compose a wealth of new material.Judged solely on musical merit, the White Album, a double LP released in late 1968, was atriumph. While largely abandoning their psychedelic instruments to return to guitar-based rock,they maintained their whimsical eclecticism, proving themselves masters of everything from blues-266rock to vaudeville.
As individual songwriters, too, it contains some of their finest work (as does thebrilliant non-LP single from this era, "Hey Jude"/"Revolution").The problem, at least in terms of the group's long-term health, was that these were very muchindividual songs, as opposed to collective ones. Lennon and McCartney had long composed mostof their tunes separately (you can almost always tell the composer by the lead vocalist). But theyhad always fed off of each other not only to supply missing bits and pieces that would bring a songto completion, but to provide a competitive edge that would bring out the best in theother. McCartney's romantic melodicism and Lennon's more acidic, gritty wit were perfectcomplements for one another. By the White Album, it was clear (if only in retrospect) that eachmember was more concerned with his own expression than that of the collective group: a naturalimpulse, but one that was bound to lead to difficulties.Yet within a short time, it became apparent both that the Beatles were not going to settle theirdifferences and reunite, and that their solo work could not compare with what they were capable ofcreating together.
The stereotype has it that the split allowed each of them to indulge in their worsttendenciestotheirextremes: Lennon inagit-prop, Harrison inholier-than-thoumysticism, McCartney in cutesy pop, Starr in easy listening rock. There's a good deal of truth inthis, but it's also important to bear in mind that what was most missing was a sense of groupinteraction. The critical party line often champions Lennon as the angry, realist rockerand McCartney as the melodic balladeer, but this is a fallacy: each of them was capable, in roughlyequal measures, of ballsy all-out rock and sweet romanticism.
![](https://s.studizba.com/z.php?f=/templates/si/i/noavatar.png&w=100&h=100&t=1"){kind=avatar}
